Resources for biodiversity conservation are severely limited, requiring strategic investment. Understanding both the economic benefits and costs of conserving ecosystems will help to allocate scarce dollars most efficiently. However, although cost-benefit analyses are common in many areas of policy, they are not typically used in conservation planning. We conducted a spatial evaluation of the c...

I is widely recognized that developing countries in the tropics that harbor a large fraction of the world’s biodiversity could, in principle, obtain substantial benefits from their biodiversity. The challenge has been to harness the economic value of sustainable uses of biodiversity in order to justify the conservation of habitat in its natural state. Promising strategies for meeting this chall...

The question of how to evaluate lost consumer surplus in benefit-cost analyses has been contentious. There are clear health benefits of regulations that curb consumption of goods with health risks, such as tobacco products and foods high in fats, calories, sugar, and sodium. Yet, if regulations cause consumers to give up goods they like, the health benefits they experience may be offset by some...