Border Enforcement, Importer Behavior, and Trade-Related Invasive Species Risk

The goal of this project is to inform government decision makers concerning border enforcement and inspections given heterogeneous importers and ports-of-entry in order to mitigate trade-related invasive species risk. The investigators will develop a theoretical model of port inspection/enforcement behavior to analyze both intended and unintended importer response to enforcement effort. This theoretical analysis will provide the framework for a spatially explicit agent-based model (ABM) of importer and inspector behavior. The ABM framework allows for a comprehensive account of both risk and heterogeneity of actors. The model will be calibrated for representative commodities using data on border enforcement, shipments, interceptions, importers, and port attributes. Enforcement and inspection policies will be evaluated using a spatially-informed damage function, allowing for the ranking of policy options based on welfare effects, rather than just on infection rates .

Principal Investigators: David Zilberman, Unversity of California at Berkeley

Co- Principal Investigators: Samuel Brody, TX A&M University ; Sean Cash, University of Edmonton , CA

Funding Organization: USDA, Program of Research on the Economics of Invasive Species Management (PREISM)