The economic impacts of ecosystem disruptions: Costs from substituting biological pest control

Author:

Frank Eyal G.123ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.

2. Center for Economic Policy Research, Paris, France.

3. National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Abstract

Biodiversity loss is accelerating, yet we know little about how these ecosystem disruptions affect human well-being. Ecologists have documented both the importance of bats as natural predators of insects as well as their population declines after the emergence of a wildlife disease, resulting in a potential decline in biological pest control. In this work, I study how species interactions can extend beyond an ecosystem and affect agriculture and human health. I find that farmers compensated for bat decline by increasing their insecticide use by 31.1%. The compensatory increase in insecticide use by farmers adversely affected health—human infant mortality increased by 7.9% in the counties that experienced bat die-offs. These findings provide empirical validation to previous theoretical predictions about how ecosystem disruptions can have meaningful social costs.

Publisher

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

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