Policy Analysis: Valuation of Ecosystem Services in the Southern Appalachian Mountains

View Journal Article

Date

Feb. 12, 2016

Authors

H. Spencer Banzhaf, Dallas Burtraw, Susie Chung Criscimagna, Bernard Cosby, David Evans, Alan Krupnick, and Juha V. Siikamäki

Publication

Journal Article

Reading time

1 minute

This study estimates the economic value of an increase in ecosystem services attributable to the reduced acidification expected from more stringent air pollution policy. By integrating a detailed biogeochemical model that projects future ecological recovery with economic methods that measure preferences for specific ecological improvements, we estimate the economic value of ecological benefits from new air pollution policies in the Southern Appalachian ecosystem. Our results indicate that these policies generate aggregate benefits of about $3.7 billion, or about $16 per year per household in the region. The study provides currently missing information about the ecological benefits from air pollution policies that is needed to evaluate such policies comprehensively. More broadly, the study also illustrates how integrated biogeochemical and economic assessments of multidimensional ecosystems can evaluate the relative benefits of different policy options that vary by scale and across ecosystem attributes.

Topics

Ecosystems and Nature-Based Solutions

Authors

H. Spencer Banzhaf

Dallas Burtraw

Darius Gaskins Senior Fellow

Dallas Burtraw is the Darius Gaskins Senior Fellow at RFF. Burtraw’s research includes analysis of the distributional and regional consequences of climate policy and the evolution of electricity markets, including renewables integration.

Susie Chung Criscimagna

Bernard Cosby

David Evans

Alan Krupnick

Senior Fellow; Director, Industry and Fuels Program

Alan Krupnick is a senior fellow at RFF.

Juha Siikamäki

Chief Economist, International Union for Conservation of Nature

Juha Siikamäki

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