9387

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9387
• Author: Brookshire, D. S., M. McKee and S. Stewart.
• Title: A Four Corners Regional Focus on the Economic Impact of Critical Habitat Designation for teh Razorback Sucker, Humpback Chub, Colorado Squawfish, and Bonytail.
• USFW Year: 1997.
• USFW - Doc Type: Albuquerque.
• Copyright Material: NO

1
1
1

1
1
1
1
1
1
r

1
recreation, construction, and agriculture sectors of the economy due to the restricted availability
of water. These direct impacts, as well as indirect impacts resulting from the reallocation of
resources due to the direct impacts, occur at various points in time throughout the time period of
the study.
The time period defined for this study-1995 through 2040-is based on several factors:
biological projections for recovery of the fishes, availability of reliable data related to economic
development plans for the region, and recognition that economic impacts in the long term are
diminished due to discounting. The initial impacts of listing and critical habitat designation are
projected to appear in 1999, and the recovery of the fishes is expected to be complete by 2020.
Thus, the defined time period should capture all impacts of critical habitat designation.
This study uses the input-output (I-O) method of economic modeling to investigate the impacts
of critical habitat designation on a defined region. I-O models are a way of describing an
economy by representing it as a series of linkages among various production sectors. Once a
model has been constructed for a particular economy, it can be used to investigate "what if'
scenarios such as the impact of exogenous shocks to that economy-in this case, shocks
associated with critical habitat designation. A shock will have direct impacts: for example,
production of a particular commodity will be curtailed because a basic input (such as water) has
become scarce. Because of the linkages in the economy, a shock will also have indirect impacts:
for example, lower production will affect employment and income in that sector, while the higher
cost of a scarce commodity means that less disposable income can be spent on the products of
other sectors of the economy. Ultimately, the shock is reflected in a change in final demand for
products of the regional economy.
The IMPLAN data sets, which permit construction of county and regional-level models, were
used as a basis for this study. These data sets were combined with Bureau of Economic Analysis
(U.S. Department of Commerce) county-level employment projections, which were further
vi
1