An Evaluation of Protected Are a Policies in the European Union
Abstract:
The Eur opean Union designates 26% of its landmass as protected areas\, limiting ec onomic development for biodiversity. We use the staggered introduction of p rotected areas between 1985 and 2019 to study the selection of protected la nd and the causal effect of protection on vegetation cover and nightlights. Protection did not affect these outcomes in any meaningful way across four decades\, countries\, protection cohorts\, or land characteristics. Specif ically\, policymakers tend to protect already-green\, low-density areas\, o r opt for weaker forms of protection in densely populated regions. Our find ings suggest that the EU does not protect land as a social planner would\; instead\, a combination of local jurisdictions’ limited preferences for bio diversity gains\, green glow\, and area-based protection targets can result in policies with minimal effects.
Organized by: Katherine Wagner
LOCATION:IONA 533 GEO:49.260872;-123.113952 URL;VALUE=URI:https://economics.ubc.ca/events/event/arthur-van-benthem-whar ton-labour-public-seminar/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Vancouver BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 DTSTART:20251102T090000 TZNAME:PST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR