IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/enreec/v59y2014i4p503-523.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why do People Care about Sea Lions? A Fishing Game to Study the Value of Endangered Species

Author

Listed:
  • Min Gong
  • Geoffrey Heal

Abstract

Previous research proposes that human beings are motivated to protect endangered species for various reasons: consumptive use value, non-consumptive use value, non-use value, and intrinsic value. However, it has been difficult to tease apart these values at the behavioral level. Using an innovative fishing game, we study an important tradeoff between one kind of use value (monetary value) and one kind of non-use value (existence value) of the endangered Steller sea lion. In the fishing game, players make repeated decisions on how much pollock to harvest for profit in each period in a dynamic ecosystem. The population of the endangered sea lion depends on the population of pollock, which in turn depends on the harvesting behavior of humans. The data show that in general, people responded to the financial value (as a tourist resource), but not the existence value, of the sea lion by cutting down commercial fish harvesting to keep more sea lions in the ecosystem. However, not all people behaved the same regarding the existence value. Females displayed a higher existence value than males, as did people who reported stronger pro-environmental attitudes than those with weaker pro-environmental attitudes. Our findings have multiple implications on public opinion elicitation and public policy design. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Min Gong & Geoffrey Heal, 2014. "Why do People Care about Sea Lions? A Fishing Game to Study the Value of Endangered Species," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 59(4), pages 503-523, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:59:y:2014:i:4:p:503-523
    DOI: 10.1007/s10640-013-9746-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10640-013-9746-8
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10640-013-9746-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gordon C. Rausser & Arthur A. Small, 2000. "Valuing Research Leads: Bioprospecting and the Conservation of Genetic Resources," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(1), pages 173-206, February.
    2. Min Gong & David Aadland, 2011. "Interview Effects in an Environmental Valuation Telephone Survey," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 49(1), pages 47-64, May.
    3. Edward B. Barbier, 2011. "Pricing Nature," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 3(1), pages 337-353, October.
    4. Simpson, R David & Sedjo, Roger A & Reid, John W, 1996. "Valuing Biodiversity for Use in Pharmaceutical Research," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(1), pages 163-185, February.
    5. Finnoff, David & Gong, Min & Tschirhart, John, 2012. "Perspectives on Ecosystem Based Management for Delivering Ecosystem Services with an Example from an Eighteen-Species Marine Model," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 6(1), pages 79-118, January.
    6. Shahid Naeem & Shibin Li, 1997. "Biodiversity enhances ecosystem reliability," Nature, Nature, vol. 390(6659), pages 507-509, December.
    7. Finnoff, David & Tschirhart, John, 2003. "Harvesting in an eight-species ecosystem," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 589-611, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Soile Oinonen & Lone Grønbæk & Marita Laukkanen & Polina Levontin & Marko Lindroos & Emmi Nieminen & Katja Parkkila & Pedro Pintassilgo & Henni Pulkkinen & Atso Romakkaniemi, 2016. "International Fisheries Management and Recreational Benefits: The Case of Baltic Salmon," Marine Resource Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(4), pages 433-451.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Amy Craft & R. Simpson, 2001. "The Value of Biodiversity in Pharmaceutical Research with Differentiated Products," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 18(1), pages 1-17, January.
    2. Anastasios Xepapadeas & Eva Kougea & Parthenopi Ralli & Sofia Spyrou & Nicolaos Stavropoulos & Vasiliki Tsiaousi & Athanasios Tsivelikas, 2013. "Valuing Services Emerging from a Gene Bank: The Case of the Greek Gene Bank," DEOS Working Papers 1307, Athens University of Economics and Business.
    3. Gollin, Douglas & Evenson, Robert, 2003. "Valuing animal genetic resources: lessons from plant genetic resources," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 353-363, July.
    4. Marcoul, Philippe & Weninger, Quinn, 2008. "Search and active learning with correlated information: Empirical evidence from mid-Atlantic clam fishermen," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1921-1948, June.
    5. Simpson, R. David, 2001. "A Note on the Valuation of Ecosystem Services in Production," Discussion Papers 10832, Resources for the Future.
    6. Lanz, Bruno & Dietz, Simon & Swanson, Tim, 2018. "The Expansion of Modern Agriculture and Global Biodiversity Decline: An Integrated Assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 260-277.
    7. Dedeurwaerdere, Tom & Krishna, Vijesh V. & Pascual, Unai, 2005. "Biodiscovery And Intellectual Property Rights: A Dynamic Approach To Economic Efficiency," Environmental Economy and Policy Research Discussion Papers 31928, University of Cambridge, Department of Land Economy.
    8. Gregory D. Graff & David Roland-Holst & David Zilberman, 2005. "Biotechnology and Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2005-27, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. David Martin, 2014. "An integrated biological and economic individual-based model of tiger protection measures," Working Papers 14-04, Davidson College, Department of Economics, revised Jul 2014.
    10. Polasky, Stephen & Costello, Christopher & Solow, Andrew, 2005. "The Economics of Biodiversity," Handbook of Environmental Economics, in: K. G. Mäler & J. R. Vincent (ed.), Handbook of Environmental Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 29, pages 1517-1560, Elsevier.
    11. Trommetter, Michel, 2005. "Biodiversity and international stakes: A question of access," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 573-583, June.
    12. Simpson, R. David, 2001. "A Note on the Valuation of Ecosystem Services in Production," RFF Working Paper Series dp-01-16, Resources for the Future.
    13. Mare Sarr & Tim Swanson, 2011. "Intellectual Property and Biodiversity: When and Where are Property Rights Important?," Working Papers 2011.79, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    14. Graff, Gregory & Roland-Holst, David & Zilberman, David, 2006. "Agricultural biotechnology and poverty reduction in low-income countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1430-1445, August.
    15. Wright, Brian D. & Pardey, Philip G. & Nottenburg, Carol & Koo, Bonwoo, 2007. "Agricultural Innovation: Investments and Incentives," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, in: Robert Evenson & Prabhu Pingali (ed.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 48, pages 2533-2603, Elsevier.
    16. Wenjuan Cheng & Alessio D’Amato & Giacomo Pallante, 2020. "Benefit sharing mechanisms for agricultural genetic diversity use and on-farm conservation," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 37(1), pages 337-355, April.
    17. Béné, C. & Doyen, L., 2008. "Contribution values of biodiversity to ecosystem performances: A viability perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1-2), pages 14-23, December.
    18. Ding, Helen & Nunes, Paulo A.L.D. & Onofri, Laura, 2007. "An Economic Model for Bioprospecting Contracts," Sustainability Indicators and Environmental Valuation Working Papers 7450, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    19. Costello, Christopher & Ward, Michael, 2006. "Search, bioprospecting and biodiversity conservation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 615-626, November.
    20. Christie, Mike & Hanley, Nick & Warren, John & Murphy, Kevin & Wright, Robert & Hyde, Tony, 2006. "Valuing the diversity of biodiversity," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 304-317, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:59:y:2014:i:4:p:503-523. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.