Incorporating distributional considerations in the safe minimum standard approach: endangered species and local impacts

Explicitly incorporating current distributional concerns into the safe mini mum standard (SMS) approach is the objective of this study. The SMS approac h is a collective choice process that prescribes protecting a minimum level of a renewable natural resource unless the social costs of doing so are so mehow excessive or intolerably high. More complete implementation of an SMS approach, if it is to be a pragmatic policy tool, requires that distributi onal considerations be included in determining whether the economic consequ ences of preservation actions are intolerable. Two case studies involving t he US Endangered Species Act are used to illustrate how distributional conc erns might be incorporated into the SMS approach. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.