115-04
Universität Siegen
Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Wirtschaftsinformatik und Wirtschaftsrecht
Volkswirtschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge
Thomas Eichner und Rüdiger Pethig
Efficient
nonanthropocentric nature protection
This paper
analyzes nature protection by a social planner under different 'utilitarian'
social welfare functions. For that purpose we construct an integrated
model of the economy and the ecosystem with explicit consideration of
nonhuman species and with competition between human and nonhuman species
for land and prey biomass. We characterize and compare the efficient allocations
when social welfare is anthropocentric (only consumers have positive welfare
weights), when social welfare is biocentric (only nonhuman species have
positive welfare weights) and when social welfare is nonanthropocentric
(all species have positive welfare weights). Not surprisingly, biocentric
social welfare calls for suspending all economic activities. It is more
important, however, that both anthropocentrism and nonanthropocentrism
make the case for nature protection through different channels, though.
Our analysis suggests that one may dispense with the concept of nonanthropocentric
social welfare provided that in the anthropocentric framework the consumers'
intrinsic valuation of nature is properly accounted for.
Download paper
