Bang for the Buck: Cost-Effective Control of Invasive Species with Different Life Histories

Eric Buhle, Michael Margolis and Jennifer L. Ruesink

No 10793, Discussion Papers from Resources for the Future

Abstract: Strategies for controlling invasive species can be aimed at any or all of the stages in the life cycle. In this paper we show how to combine biological data on population dynamics with simple economic data on control cost options to determine the least costly set of strategies that will halt an invasion. We then apply our methods to oyster drills (Ocinebrellus inornatus), an economically important aquaculture pest that has been accidentally introduced worldwide. If the costs of intervention were the same across life stages, extermination of adults would be an inefficient way to control species with the population dynamics characteristics of invaders. In the oyster drill case, however, efficient control targets adults because they are much easier to find.

Keywords: Environmental; Economics; and; Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23
Date: 2004
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/10793/files/dp040006.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:rffdps:10793

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.10793

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers from Resources for the Future Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().