Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- About the Authors
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword
- 1 The Nature of Endangered Species Protection
- PART 1 BIOLOGICAL NEEDS
- PART 2 POLITICAL REALITIES
- PART 3 ECONOMIC CHOICES
- 10 The Endangered Species Act and Critical Habitat Designation: Economic Consequences for the Colorado River Basin
- 11 The Revealed Demand for a Public Good: Evidence from Endangered and Threatened Species
- 12 The ESA through Coase-Colored Glasses
- 13 On Current Approaches to ESA Analysis: Comments on Watts et al., Coursey, and Anderson
- Replies by Authors
- 14 The Economics of “Takings” in a Multiparcel Model with a Powerful Government
- 15 Investment, Information Collection, and Endangered Species Conservation on Private Land
- 16 Protecting Species on Private Land
- 17 Compensation for Takings under the ESA: How Much Is Too Much? A Comment
- Replies by Authors
- PART 4 SUMMARY AND DATABASE
- Index
12 - The ESA through Coase-Colored Glasses
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- About the Authors
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword
- 1 The Nature of Endangered Species Protection
- PART 1 BIOLOGICAL NEEDS
- PART 2 POLITICAL REALITIES
- PART 3 ECONOMIC CHOICES
- 10 The Endangered Species Act and Critical Habitat Designation: Economic Consequences for the Colorado River Basin
- 11 The Revealed Demand for a Public Good: Evidence from Endangered and Threatened Species
- 12 The ESA through Coase-Colored Glasses
- 13 On Current Approaches to ESA Analysis: Comments on Watts et al., Coursey, and Anderson
- Replies by Authors
- 14 The Economics of “Takings” in a Multiparcel Model with a Powerful Government
- 15 Investment, Information Collection, and Endangered Species Conservation on Private Land
- 16 Protecting Species on Private Land
- 17 Compensation for Takings under the ESA: How Much Is Too Much? A Comment
- Replies by Authors
- PART 4 SUMMARY AND DATABASE
- Index
Summary
When Ronald Coase wrote his seminal article on “The Problem of Social Cost” in 1960, concerns about environmental problems and especially endangered species were held only by a small handful of biologists. The environmental movement had not yet started to impact public policy. Though the Wilderness Act was passed in 1964 prohibiting mechanized vehicle travel, logging, and many other commercial activities on certain public lands, it was not until the 1970s that environmental concerns took center stage with the passage of the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Rising incomes, declining numbers of some charismatic species such as the bald eagle and grizzly bear, and the emergence of environmental consciousness through books such as Rachel Carson's Silent Spring raised the value of the environment generally and endangered species in particular. Not surprisingly, rising values of these goods led to a struggle for ownership of the environment. The struggle, however, was not over who would pay whom for costs associated with resource use, but over how much and by which agencies would private activities be regulated.
Though Coase's insights have tremendous implications for environmental policy, the debates still focus mainly on the divergence between private and social costs. Indeed, there is almost no discussion of the reciprocal nature of costs. The ESA does not consider the optimal number of species, the ways to minimize the costs of maintaining species, or the issue of who should compensate whom for species loss.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Protecting Endangered Species in the United StatesBiological Needs, Political Realities, Economic Choices, pp. 226 - 249Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001