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Economic Profitability Versus Ecological Entropy

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  • Martin L. Weitzman

Abstract

There is a long-standing trade-off in bioculture between concentrating on high-yield varieties and maintaining sufficient diversity to lower the risks of catastrophic infection. The paper uses a simple ecology-based model of endogenous disease to indicate how a local decision to plant more of a widely grown crop creates negative externalities by increasing the probability that new pathogens will evolve to attack the crop globally. Society's basic issue concerns where to locate on an efficiency frontier between economic profitability and a standard formula for ecological entropy-proved here to be a rigorous measure of "generalized resistance" to crop-ecosystem failure.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin L. Weitzman, 2000. "Economic Profitability Versus Ecological Entropy," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(1), pages 237-263.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:qjecon:v:115:y:2000:i:1:p:237-263.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1162/003355300554728
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