Living organisms produce chemicals for repelling pests and resisting infections. Some of these chemicals have considerable commercial value. The demonstration of commercial value might motivate increased conservation of tropical biodiversity. Successful commercialization requires countries with...

Biologists and conservation advocates have expressed grave concern over perceived threats to biological diversity. "Biodiversity prospecting"—the search among naturally occurring organisms for new products of agricultural, industrial, and, particularly, pharmaceutical value—has been advanced...

There is considerable interest in biodiversity prospecting (the search for valuable new products from natural sources) as a conservation strategy. In an earlier paper, we have argued that the value of the marginal species (and, by extension, the incentives for the conservation of the habitat on...

This paper examines the question of the likely effects on global forests of a further reduction in wood products tariffs including both solid wood products and pulp and paper, as has been proposed to the World Trade Organization (WTO) by the Asia Pacific Economic Community (APEC). The tariff...

We develop a model of search in which a researcher chooses the size of sequential batches of samples to test. While earlier work has considered similar questions, the contribution of this paper is to use the search model to place a value on the marginal research opportunity. The valuation of...

In their 1963 classic Scarcity and Growth Howard Barnett and Chandler Morse argued that resource scarcity did not threaten economic growth. A second investigation in the late 1970s, Scarcity and Growth Reconsidered, reached largely the same conclusion. The 25 years since that work was published...

Since at least the time of von Thünen's contributions to the subject, economists have been interested in explaining land use in the hinterlands. This interest has grown with increasing societal demands on remaining forested areas and concern for the nonmarket resources generated by such...

There is a growing interest in incentive-based policies to motivate conservation by landowners. These policies include full- and partial-interest land purchases, tax-based incentives, and tradable or bankable development rights. Using legal and economic analysis, the paper explores potential...