The Costs of Critical Habitat or Owl’s Well That Ends Well

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. Under strong assumptions regarding capitalization, our results provide an estimate of the net social value of this critical habitat conservation; under weaker assumptions, the results provide an estimate of the costs of this conservation.

Lunch will be provided.

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Jonathan Klick is Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania and Erasmus Chair of Empirical Legal Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is a leading scholar in Empirical Law and Economics. His research focuses on identifying the causal effects of laws and regulations on individual behaviour using cutting-edge econometric tools. He has published widely on topics such as health, crime, and business regulation.