Protecting Species through Legislation: The Case of Sea Turtles

Michael Brei; Agustin Perez-Barahona; Eric Strobl

doi:10.1093/ajae/aaz025

Protecting Species through Legislation: The Case of Sea Turtles

Michael Brei, Agustin Perez-Barahona, Eric Strobl^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

179 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We evaluate the effectiveness of legislation in reducing the negative impacts of beachfront lighting on sea turtle nesting activity, one of the main threats to the species. To this end we construct a time varying index of ordinance effectiveness across Florida counties and combine this with loggerhead nesting data to create a panel data set covering a twenty-six year period. Our econometric findings show that such legislation can significantly increase nesting activity, where current levels of protection result in an additional 34%. Using our estimates within a calibrated population model we also demonstrate that legislation can reduce the time to the animals’ extinction. Finally, when considering estimates of local willingness to pay for sea turtle preservation, we show that alternatively raising sea turtles in captivity under a head start program may be prohibitively expensive.

Original language	English
Article number	aaz025
Pages (from-to)	300-328
Number of pages	29
Journal	American Journal of Agricultural Economics
Volume	102
Issue number	1
Early online date	16 Aug 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aaz025
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors are thankful to Nicholas Blume, Benjamin Higgins, Robbin Trindell, and Jeanette Wyneken, for their comments and help. They would also like to express our gratitude to the participants at WCERE 2018, Gothenburg (Sweden), SURED 2018, Ascona (Switzerland), SALISES 2018, Montego Bay (Jamaica), and S?minaire Cournot, BETA, University of Strasbourg (France), for useful discussion. The Associate Editor of this Journal and three anonymous referees provided suggestions that helped to make substantial improvements to the paper. Agust?n P?rez-Barahona acknowledges financial support from the Chaire D?veloppement Durable (Ecole Polytechnique ? EDF) and the Labex MME-DII.

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. All rights reserved.

Keywords

legislation
sea turtles
species protection

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous)
Economics and Econometrics

Access to Document

10.1093/ajae/aaz025Licence: None: All rights reserved

Michael_Brei_et_al_Protecting_species_through_legislation_American_Journal_of_Agricultural_Economics_2019
This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in American Journal of Agricultural Economics following peer review. The version of record Michael Brei, Agustín Pérez-Barahona, Eric Strobl, Protecting Species through Legislation: The Case of Sea Turtles, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, aaz025, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aaz025 is available online at: https://academic.oup.com/ajae/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ajae/aaz025/5550676
Accepted author manuscript, 966 KBLicence: None: All rights reserved

https://academic.oup.com/ajae/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ajae/aaz025/5550676Licence: None: All rights reserved

Cite this

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abstract = "We evaluate the effectiveness of legislation in reducing the negative impacts of beachfront lighting on sea turtle nesting activity, one of the main threats to the species. To this end we construct a time varying index of ordinance effectiveness across Florida counties and combine this with loggerhead nesting data to create a panel data set covering a twenty-six year period. Our econometric findings show that such legislation can significantly increase nesting activity, where current levels of protection result in an additional 34%. Using our estimates within a calibrated population model we also demonstrate that legislation can reduce the time to the animals{\textquoteright} extinction. Finally, when considering estimates of local willingness to pay for sea turtle preservation, we show that alternatively raising sea turtles in captivity under a head start program may be prohibitively expensive.",

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Protecting Species through Legislation: The Case of Sea Turtles

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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