Introduction to Essays in the Economics of Invasive Species Management

Abstract

We begin by outlining some of the more salient issues in contemporary research on the management of invasive species. Next, we note that even though there is a sizeable literature in both biology and economics on invasive species management, until very recently, there has been a significant dearth of theoretical research in this subject. Given this state of affairs, a key objective of this book is to show how dynamic and stochastic approaches from economics and operations research can be fruitfully used to first model and then analyze a whole host of invasive species related problems that also have noteworthy public policy ramifications. This book is concerned with the economics of invasive species management. To this end, we focus attention on the three topics of international trade, inspections, and agriculture. Following this introductory chapter, the next four chapters study the many and varied nexuses between international trade and invasive species related problems. The next eight chapters focus on inspections, an important but nonetheless insufficiently studied topic in invasive species management. Finally, the last two chapters dwell on invasive species related problems in the context of agriculture.

Keywords: Inspection, International Trade, Invasive Species, Orchard, Uncertainty

JEL Classification: Q27, Q58, D81