On the Garden Path: An Economic Perspective on Prevention and Control Policies for an Invasive Species

Economists currently use the term invasive species to denote species that arrive in a new ecological setting and spread, creating ecological and economic damages. The problem facing invasive policy managers is to select strategies that minimize the overall invasive species-related costs over time, including prevention and control expenditures and damages. This article aims to highlight the connection between prevention and control in decisions to best utilize scarce resources to fight invasive species and arises from a more extensive literature involving this author and others (Burnett et al., 2006; Olson & Roy, 2005).