ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE MIGRATORY BIRD HUNTING REGULATIONS FOR THE 2008-2009 SEASON Prepared by:

The purpose of this economic analysis is to determine the economic effects of Federal regulatory alternatives for the 2008-2009 hunting season for migratory birds. This analysis centers on changing daily bag limits and season lengths, the two most important policy variables in the Federal framework. The analysis will show that differences in those key variables between alternatives result in measurable changes in the number of hunters, how often they hunt, and the amount of consumer surplus they enjoy as well as the amount of money they spend in pursuit of their sport. There are two components to this analysis: first, each of the regulatory alternatives will be evaluated for their effects on consumer surplus and second, each alternative will be evaluated for their effects on hunter expenditures. The results of this analysis will document the expected economic effects of the final framework for the 2008-2009 Fall migratory bird hunting season. Migratory birds are a renewable, international, common property resource. Unlike resources with clear ownership, individuals have little or no incentive to conserve common property resources. A bird not taken today may be taken by another hunter tomorrow. Therefore, each consumer has an incentive to take as much of the resource as they can capture, so all consumers together can overexploit the resource. This type of market failure is termed an externality in that the actions of one party impose costs on others that cannot be captured by a market transaction. Over harvesting at the turn of the century resulted in depleted bird populations and inspired the Migratory Bird Treatie