Efficient ecosystem services and naturalness in an ecological/economic model |
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Authors: | Thomas Eichner John Tschirhart |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Economics, University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany;(2) Department of Economics and Finance, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA |
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Abstract: | In an integrated economic/ecological model, the economy benefits from ecosystem services that include: (1) the consumptive
use of a harvested species, (2) the non-consumptive use of popular species, and (3) naturalness, i.e., the divergence of the
ecosystem’s biodiversity from its natural steady state. The biological component of the model, which is applied to a nine-species
Alaskan marine ecosystem, relies on individual optimizing behaviour by plants and animals to establish population dynamics.
The biological component is used to define naturalness. By varying harvesting we arrive at different steady-state populations
and humans choose from among these steady states. Welfare maximizing levels of the ecosystem services are derived, then it
is shown that in the laissez-faire economy overharvesting occurs when the harvesting industry ignores ecosystem services (2) and (3). Lastly, we introduce efficiency
restoring taxes and standards that internalize the ecosystem externalities.
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Keywords: | Ecosystem services Biodiversity Naturalness Harvesting |
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