ECONOMIC EFFECT OF ENDANGERED SPECIES PRESERVATION IN THE NON-METROPOLITAN WEST

A common argument advanced in the non-metropolitan counties of the US West is that the Endangered Species Act (ESA) can have, and has had, a devastating effect on local economies. However, to date, there has no t been a systematic empirical analysis of the ESA's effect on local ec onomies. This paper reports on such an analysis. Based on a sample of all 333 non-metropolitan counties in the eleven-state West, the statis tical effect of the listing of threatened and endangered species on co unty employment growth between 1980 and 1990 is estimated. The paper's primary finding is that the hypothesis that endangered species listin g has had a negative effect on the nonmetropolitan county economies of the US West is not supported by the data.