Is the Endangered Species Act Endangering Species?
Abstract
We develop theory and present a suite of theoretically consistent empirical measures to explore the extent to which market intervention inadvertently alters resource allocation in a sequentialmove principal/agent game. We showcase our approach empirically by exploring the extent to which the U.S. Endangered Species Act has altered land development patterns. We report evidence indicating significant acceleration of development directly after each of several events deemed likely to raise fears among owners of habitat land. Our preferred estimate suggests an overall acceleration of land development by roughly one year. We also find from complementary hedonic regression models that habitat parcels declined in value when the habitat map was published, which is consistent with our estimates of the degree of preemption. These results have clear implications for policymakers, who continue to discuss alternative regulatory frameworks for species preservation. More generally, our modeling strategies can be widely applied -- from any particular economic environment that has a sequential-move nature to the narrower case of the political economy of regulation.Download Info
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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 12777.Length:
Date of creation: Dec 2006
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12777
Note: PE EEE
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Related research
Keywords:Find related papers by JEL classification:
- H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
- H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
- Q27 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Issues in International Trade
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-AGR-2007-01-02 (Agricultural Economics)
- NEP-ALL-2007-01-02 (All new papers)
- NEP-ENV-2007-01-02 (Environmental Economics)
- NEP-REG-2007-01-02 (Regulation)
References
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- Robert Innes & Stephen Polasky & John Tschirhart, 1998. "Takings, Compensation and Endangered Species Protection on Private Lands," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(3), pages 35-52, Summer.
- Lueck, Dean & Michael, Jeffrey A, 2003. "Preemptive Habitat Destruction under the Endangered Species Act," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 46(1), pages 27-60, April.
- Daron Acemoglu & Joshua D. Angrist, 2001.
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Robert Innes & George Frisvold, 2009. "The Economics of Endangered Species," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 485-512, 09.
- Walls, Margaret & Riddle, Anne, 2012. "Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services, and Land Use: Comparing Three Federal Policies," Discussion Papers dp-12-08, Resources For the Future.
- Grijalva, Therese & Berrens, Robert P. & Shaw, W. Douglass, 2011. "Species preservation versus development: An experimental investigation under uncertainty," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(5), pages 995-1005, March.
- Robalino, Juan & Villalobos-Fiatt, Laura, 2010. "Conservation Policies and Labor Markets: Unraveling the Effects of National Parks on Local Wages in Costa Rica," Discussion Papers dp-10-02-efd, Resources For the Future.
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