Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T09:12:35.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Prevention or Control: Optimal Government Policies for Invasive Species Management

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

C.S. Kim ,
Ruben N. Lubowski ,
Jan Lewandrowski  and
Mark E. Eiswerth
C.S. Kim
Affiliation:
Economic Research Service
Ruben N. Lubowski
Affiliation:
Economic Research Service
Jan Lewandrowski
Affiliation:
Office of Chief Economist, all with the U.S. Department of Agriculture
Mark E. Eiswerth
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics at the University of Wisconsin in Whitewater, Wisconsin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We present a conceptual, but empirically applicable, model for determining the optimal allocation of resources between exclusion and control activities for managing an invasive species with an uncertain discovery time. This model is used to investigate how to allocate limited resources between activities before and after the first discovery of an invasive species and the effects of the characteristics of an invasive species on limited resource allocation. The optimality conditions show that it is economically efficient to spend a larger share of outlays for exclusion activities before, rather than after, a species is first discovered, up to a threshold point. We also find that, after discovery, more exclusionary measures and fewer control measures are optimal, when the pest population is less than a threshold. As the pest population increases beyond this threshold, the exclusionary measures are no longer optimal. Finally, a comparative dynamic analysis indicates that the efficient level of total expenditures on preventive and control measures decreases with the level of the invasive species stock and increases with the intrinsic population growth rate, the rate of additional discoveries avoided, and the maximum possible pest population.

Keywords

invasive speciesexclusioncontroleradicationpublic expenditures
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Agricultural and Resource Economics Review , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , April 2006 , pp. 29 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blanchard, O.J. 1985. “Debt, Deficits, and Finite Horizons.” Journal of Political Economy 93(2): 223–247.Google Scholar
Costello, C. and McAusland, C. 2003. “Protectionism, Trade, and Measures of Damage from Exotic Species Introductions.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 85(4): 964–975.Google Scholar
Cox, E.R. 1972. “Regression Models and Life Tables.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (Series B: Methodological) 34(2): 187–220.Google Scholar
Dasgupta, P. and Heal, G. 1974. “The Optimal Depletion of Exhaustible Resources.” Review of Economic Studies (Symposium on the Economics of Exhaustible Resources) 41: 3–28.Google Scholar
Eiswerth, M.E. and Johnson, W.S. 2002. “Managing Nonindigenous Invasive Species: Insights from Dynamic Analysis.” Environmental and Resource Economics 23(3): 319–342.Google Scholar
Eiswerth, M.E. and van Kooten, G.C. 2002. “Uncertainty, Economics, and the Spread of an Invasive Plant Species.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 84(5): 1317–1322.Google Scholar
Garrett, L.J. 2005. Personal communication. Center for Plant Health Science and Technology, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Raleigh, NC.Google Scholar
Horan, R.D. Perrings, C. Lupi, F. and Bulte, E.H. 2002. “Biological Pollution Prevention Strategies under Ignorance: The Case of Invasive Species.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 84(5): 1303–1310.Google Scholar
Huffaker, R. and Cooper, K. 1995. “Plant Succession as a Natural Range Restoration Factor in Private Livestock Enterprises.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 77(4): 901–913.Google Scholar
James, S. and Anderson, K. 1998. “On the Need for More Economic Assessment of Quarantine Policies.” The Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 42(4): 425–444.Google Scholar
Kaiser, B. and Roumasset, J. 2002. “Optimal Control of Exotic Species: Preventing Snakes in Hawaii.” Paper presented at the 77th Annual Conference of the Western Economic Association International, Seattle, WA.Google Scholar
Kamien, M.I. and Schwartz, N.L. 1971. “Limit Pricing and Uncertain Entry.” Econometrica 39(3): 441–454.Google Scholar
Kiefer, N.M. 1988. “Economic Duration Data and Hazard Functions.” Journal of Economic Literature 26(2): 646–679.Google Scholar
North Central Soybean Research Program. 2004. “Soybean Aphid Research Update.” North Central Soybean Research Program, Urbandale, Iowa. Available at http://www.planthealth.info (accessed March 11, 2006).Google Scholar
Olson, L.J. and Roy, S. 2002. “The Economics of Controlling a Stochastic Biological Invasion.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 84(5): 1311–1316.Google Scholar
Olson, L.J. and Roy, S. 2005. “On Prevention and Control of an Uncertain Biological Invasion.” Review of Agricultural Economics 27(3): 491–497.Google Scholar
Ranjan, R. Marshall, L. and Shortle, J. 2003. “Optimal Renewable Resource Management in the Presence of Endogenous Risk of Invasion.” Presented at the annual meetings of the American Agricultural Economics Association, Montreal, Canada, August 3–6.Google Scholar
Rose, N.L. and Joskow, P.L. 1990. “The Diffusion of New Technologies: Evidence from the Electric Utility Industry.” RAND Journal of Economics 21(3): 354–373.Google Scholar
Settle, C. and Shogren, J.F. 2002. “Modeling Native-Exotic Species within Yellowstone Lake.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 84(5): 1323–1328.Google Scholar
Shogren, J.F. 2000. “Risk Reduction Strategies against the ‘Explosive Invader’.” In Perrings, C. Williamson, M. and Dalmazzone, S. eds., The Economics of Biological Invasions. Northampton, MA.: Edward Elgar Publishing Inc.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vargas, R.I. and Ramadan, M.M. 2000. “Comparisons of Demographic Parameters: Six Parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) and their Fruit Fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) Hosts.” In Tan, K.H. ed., Area-Wide Control of Fruit Flies and Other Insect Pests. Malaysia: Penerbit Universiti Sains.Google Scholar
Yaari, M.E. 1965. “Uncertain Lifetime, Life Insurance, and the Theory of the Consumer.” Review of Economic Studies 32(2): 137–149.Google Scholar