Economic Impacts of the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill (GOMOS) website was developed in response to the calls for assistance by state regulatory agencies a few days after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion on April 20, 2010 and the economic inquiries coming from the public and the media. The GOMOS website was developed starting in April 30, 2010 to provide long-term baseline economic information on selected economic sectors and communities in Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico region.

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The closures of significant portions of GOM federal and state waters to commercial and recreational fishing and closures of beach resources to human uses due to GOMOS or DWHOS will alter the recreation, consumption and production decisions of residents and tourists in affected communities.

These long-term baseline secondary data will be used to determine the duration of the economic impacts of the massive technological disaster. Econometric analysis of these data will be conducted to determine the rate of economic recovery and measure the economic damages to these affected economic sectors. It is suggested that these assessments be conducted on a region-wide basis, state by state, and species by species.

The GOMOS website was developed by Dr. Benedict Posadas with assistance from the following research associates: Amanda Seymour and Randy Coker. Additional assistance was provided by the following student workers: Kit PosadasCassie JonesKaty Buchanan and Heather Dikes.

The GOMOS website is based upon work partially supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture under Award No. 2010-41210-21185. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in the GOMOS website are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of U. S. Department of Agriculture.

Additional funding was provided by Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Extension ProgramMississippi State University Extension Service,U.S. Economic Development Administration, and Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.