This paper assesses the economic aspects of the search for and recovery of fossils on U.S. lands. The objective is taken to be the maximization of the social value of these resources, including the market and scientific values. Because independent searchers may not internalize the scientific value, we develop a reward scheme that incentivizes both optimal recovery of finds, and optimal search. We then trace how U.S. federal and state laws have tried to strike a balance between search activity and scientific recovery. We argue that existing law deals well with recovery but does not generally promote optimal search. (JEL D83, H41, I23, K11, O32)

中文翻译：

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T. REX出土：古生物学发现的法律和经济学

本文评估了在美国土地上寻找和恢复化石的经济方面。目的是使这些资源的社会价值最大化，包括市场价值和科学价值。由于独立的搜索者可能无法将科学价值内在化，因此我们开发了一种奖励计划，该计划既可以激励发现的最佳恢复，也可以激励最优搜索。然后，我们追踪美国联邦和州法律如何设法在搜索活动与科学复苏之间取得平衡。我们认为，现有法律对恢复的处理很好，但通常不会促进最佳搜索。（JEL D83，H41，I23，K11，O32）