Is the Endangered Species Act working?
The effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act remains a mystery more than 30 years after its passage, says environmental economist Paul Ferraro. “This is a huge deal,” Ferraro says. “Biodiversity is declining worldwide, and ESA is our centerpiece policy tool for dealing with the issue.” Ferraro, an assistant professor of economics at Georgia State University, is studying a question that has never been answered: Would endangered species be any worse off if they were not listed by ESA? Using measures of species recovery from 1993 to 1997, Ferraro has estimated the size and significance of ESA listings on species recovery for 490 vertebrates. “Our preliminary findings suggest that the ESA listing by itself does not appear to affect the probability that a species will recover or decline,” says Ferraro, whose research is ongoing. “However, we are also finding that the combination of substantial government funds for recovery initiatives with an ESA listing does lead to a substantial increa
