Seminar

Past

Conservation priorities and environmental offsets: Markets for Florida wetlands

William Rafey

  • Date25 November 2024
  • Time 14h15 - 15h30
  • Room Auditorium 4

Résumé

We introduce an empirical framework for valuing markets in environmental offsets. Using newly-collected data on wetland conservation and offsets, we apply this framework to evaluate a set of decentralized markets in Florida, where land developers purchase offsets from long-lived producers who restore wetlands over time. We find that offsets led to substantial private gains from trade, creating $2.2 billion of net surplus from 1995–2020 relative to direct conservation. Offset trading also generated new hydrological externalities. A locally differentiated Pigouvian tax would have prevented $1.4 billion of new flood damage while preserving more than two-thirds of the private gains from trade. (with Dan Aronoff)

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To be announced

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  • Date 7 December 2026

  • Place Auditorium 4

  • Speaker or organiser Steve Cicala (Tufts University)

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To be announced

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  • Environmental Economics Seminar

  • Date 7 December 2026

  • Place Auditorium 4

  • Speaker or organiser Milan Quentel (Universidad Carlos III, Spain)

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To be announced

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  • Date 30 November 2026

  • Place Auditorium 4

  • Speaker or organiser Zhi Li (Xiamen University - Chine)

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