Valuing Biodiversity from an Economic Perspective: A Unified Economic, Ecological, and Genetic Approach

William Brock and Anastasios Xepapadeas

American Economic Review, 2003, vol. 93, issue 5, 1597-1614

Abstract: We develop a conceptual framework for valuing biodiversity from an economic perspective. We argue for a dynamic economic welfare measure of biodiversity that complements the literature on benefit-cost approaches and genetic distance/phylogenic tree approaches. Using a unified model of optimal economic management of an ecosystem under ecological and genetic constraints, we identify gains from management policies leading to a more diverse system, using the Bellman state valuation function of the problem. We show that a more diverse system could attain a higher value although the genetic distance of the species in the more diverse system could be almost zero.

Date: 2003
Note: DOI: 10.1257/000282803322655464
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Related works:
Working Paper: Valuing biodiversity from an economic perspective: a unified economic, ecological and genetic approach (2003)
Working Paper: Valuing biodiversity from an economic perspective: a unified economic, ecological and genetic approach (2001)
Working Paper: Valuing Biodiversity from an Economic Perspective: A Unified Economic, Ecological and Genetic Approach (2001)
Working Paper: Valuing Biodiversity from an Economic Perspective: AUnified Economic, Ecological and Genetic Approach
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