What is Marginal Benefit

The economics of plant and animal health protection influence country policies through rapidly evolving benefit-cost tradeoffs that are difficult to forecast. Increased threat of infestation by invasive species following novel trade pathways is one recent trend, being counteracted by advances in data analytics to target interventions on higher risk pathways. The availability of increasingly large, complicated datasets generated from daily enforcement of regulations are available to safeguarding analysts. These data resources used to monitor and evaluate pathways are increasingly available electronically with shorter time lags. But the efficacy of increased analytic capabilities requires a clear objective of what is optimal. Economic frameworks can help focus the analytics. For example, increased protection that costs more than the benefit generated is not efficient. Economic theory provides a systematic method with which to develop policy or to assess existing programs. This chapter provides basic economic concepts and examples relevant to biosecurity safeguarding.