The Value of Agricultural Pollination

• Agricultural Economics Workshop

Date and Location

Tuesday, April 15, 2014, 4:10 PM - 5:30 PM
ARE Conference Room, 2102 Social Sciences and Humanities

Abstract

The pollination services provided by insects to human economies through agricultural production have been valued at 153 billion euros per year (~200 billion USD). We review the findings and methods of this small but influential literature. We correct three important limitations of the methods used so far by accounting for producer surpluses, trade, and substitution in production and consumption. We argue that the notion of "pollination hotspots" developed by previous contributions is misleading for understanding the welfare impacts of changes in pollinator abundance.