Do Open Access Conditions Affect the Valuation of an Externality? Estimating the Welfare Effects of Mangrove-Fishery Linkages in Thailand

Mangroves are considered ecologicallyimportant due to their role as breedinggrounds and nursery habitats for off-shorefisheries. However, mangrove deforestationthrough conversion to shrimp aquaculturethreatens this valuable function. This paperdevelops a ‘dynamic’ production functionapproach to analyze the influence of habitatchanges on an open access fishery that faces afinite elasticity of demand. The basic modelis applied to a case study of the impacts ofmangrove deforestation on the artisanal marinedemersal and shellfish fisheries in Thailand. By estimating parameters through pooledtime-series and cross-sectional data over the1983–1993 period for the five coastal zones ofSouthern Thailand, the welfare impacts ofmangrove deforestation are estimated underdifferent elasticity of demand assumptions. Under pure open access, the welfare lossesestimated for mangrove deforestation inThailand of 30 km<Superscript>2</Superscript> annually ranged from$12,000 to $408,000 depending on theelasticity of demand. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2002