Linking environmental management to health outcomes: a case study of the emerald ash borer

Abstract

Research has linked the environment to improved health outcomes; however, environmental policy continues to ignore this connection. This is particularly important with invasive species, such as the emerald ash borer (EAB), that are destroying ash trees throughout North America. This oversight has potential impacts in terms of increased mortality rates due to a loss of ash trees. To address this issue, we use a health production function to map heterogeneous environmental amenities to changes in health. We find that inclusive of health impacts, management of the EAB is qualitatively different than current practices and varies according to spatial distributions of wealth. This model has policy implications for the optimal management of environmental amenities where a link between nature and health exists.

Keywords:

• health
• environmental management
• ash trees
• emerald ash borer

JEL Classification:

• I12
• Q57

Notes

¹ Across the 15 states in their study area, the borer was associated with 6113 excess lower-respiratory deaths and 15 080 excess cardiovascular deaths over the 1990–2007 time frame. The magnitude of these effects was greater in counties with an above-average median household wealth; however, the authors were unable to provide any conclusive reason for this.

² EAB spreads locally through flight and quasi-randomly as a passenger on cut ash wood transported by humans. In addition to the extensive rate of EAB spread, EAB has the capacity to kill an adult ash tree within 3–5 years and saplings within a year.

³ We acknowledge that other inputs into health production exist (e.g., socio-demographics, unobserved healthiness, genetics, etc.), but choose to generalize to the two-good production model because we are most concerned with health links to the environment.

⁴ Equation 4 increases at a decreasing rate in m. Equation 5 increases at an increasing rate in m.