The Stochastic Arrival of Alien Species and the Number of and the Damage from Biological Invasions

Abstract

The extant literature has delineated some of the ways in which uncertainty affects the management of alien species. In this paper, we continue this line of inquiry and shed light on two insufficiently studied issues concerning the probabilistic nature of biological invasions. First, we determine the total number of biological invasions in a particular time period of interest. Second, we compute the total monetary damage from biological invasions in this same time period of interest. Our analysis of the first (second) issue focuses on the case in which the parameter of the stochastic process describing the arrival of alien species is probabilistic (deterministic).

Keywords: Biological Invasion, Monetary Damage, Stochastic Arrival Process, Uncertainty

JEL Classification: Q56, Q58, C44