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A Method for Valuing Global Ecosystem Services

Anne Alexander
University of Wyoming

John A. List
University of Chicago - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Michael Margolis
Escuela de Econonía, Universidad de Guanajuato



Ecological Economics, Vol. 27, No. 2, 1998

Abstract:     
The goal of this paper is to provide an investigation of several approaches to valuing ecosystem services and to contribute additional techniques which may be used in evaluating `green' GDP accounts. Our estimates focus on the
ecosystem as a productive economic input, not a stock which is depreciated or depleted over time; as such, it differs with other concepts more frequently employed in green GDP accounting. Most of our results are derived from the analytical fiction that a single owner of the biosphere establishes a market for all ecological resources. This monopolist then appropriates all rents from the human population. The maximum amount the monopolist charges is first assumed to be world gross product less the global human subsistence level. In addition, we examine the excess rents available in factor markets using the assumption of weak complementarity between factor inputs and ecosystem services. We also provide more conservative estimates of the value of ecosystem services by investigating the sustainable price the monopolist could charge the global population and by exploring the effects of compensating wage differentials and a non-monopolist owner of the ecosystem.

Keywords: Ecosystem services, Monopolist, Excess rents, Maximum surplus, Weak complementarity

JEL Classifications: Q00, D5

Accepted Paper Series

Date posted: December 19, 2007 ; Last revised: June 09, 2008

Suggested Citation

Alexander, Anne, List, John A. and Margolis, Michael, A Method for Valuing Global Ecosystem Services. Ecological Economics, Vol. 27, No. 2, 1998. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1075862


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Contact Information

Anne Alexander (Contact Author)
University of Wyoming ( email )
Box 3434 University Station
Laramie, WY 82070
United States
John A. List
University of Chicago - Department of Economics ( email )
1126 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
United States
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
P.O. Box 7240
D-53072 Bonn Germany
Michael Margolis
Escuela de Econonía, Universidad de Guanajuato ( email )
Guanajuato United States
HOME PAGE: http://economia.ugto.org/michael/
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