On the economics of biological invasion: An application to recreational fishing

Abstract. The paper demonstrates four general mechanisms that may affect economically valuable species when exposed to biological invasion. We distinguish between an ecological level effect and an ecological growth effect. In addition, we present an economic quantity effect working through demand. F...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jon Olaf Olaussen, Anders Skonhoft
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Subjects:
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1072.253
http://www.svt.ntnu.no/iso/Anders.Skonhoft/Naturalresmod1208.pdf
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Summary:Abstract. The paper demonstrates four general mechanisms that may affect economically valuable species when exposed to biological invasion. We distinguish between an ecological level effect and an ecological growth effect. In addition, we present an economic quantity effect working through demand. Finally, we suggest that there is an economic quality effect that reflects the possibility that invasions affect the harvesting agents directly through demand-side forces. For example, this may occur because the state of the original species or the ecosystem is altered. We depart from the existing literature by revealing ecological and economic forces that explain why different agents may lack incentives to control invasions. The theoretical model is illustrated by the case where escaped farmed salmon (EFS ) influence wild Atlantic salmon fisheries.