Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-3-2020
Abstract
When the Fish and Wildlife Service designated land in four counties of Arizona as “critical habitat” necessary for the protection of the endangered cactus ferruginous pygmy‐owl, property values dropped considerably. When the owl was later delisted, property values jumped back up. We use difference-in-difference and synthetic control designs to identify this effect with Zillow property value data. The results provide an estimate of the costs of this critical habitat designation, and they are considerable, contrary to the regulators’ position that critical habitat protection imposes no incremental costs beyond the original endangered species listing.
Keywords
ESA; property value; conservation; owl
Repository Citation
Klick, Jonathan and Ruhl, J.B., "The Costs of Critical Habitat or Owl’s Well That Ends Well" (2020). All Faculty Scholarship. 2231.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/2231
Included in
Environmental Law Commons, Environmental Policy Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, Law and Economics Commons, Natural Resources Law Commons, Other Economics Commons, Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation Commons, Property Law and Real Estate Commons, Real Estate Commons