Biodiversity and geography

摘要

We combine a new economic geography model of agglomerationand dispersion of economic activity with an ecological-economicmodel of species diversity to examine optimal policies ofbiodiversity conservation in a two-region world. Species diversityis inevitably impaired by anthropogenic impact. Thus, the economicand ecological systems compete for space and the question arises asto how this conflict should be resolved. The decisive parameters ofthe model are related to biological diversity (endemism vs.redundancy of species) and the patterns of economic geography(centrifugal vs. centripetal forces). As regards the choice ofenvironmental-policy instruments, it is shown that Pigouvian taxesdo not always establish the optimal allocation.