David A. King

The Use of Census Data for Hedonic Price Estimates of Open Space Amenities and Land Use

Hedonic price models for determining marginal implicit prices of open-space amenities and nonresidential land use were estimated using housing data from the census. Alternative model specifications were compared to evaluate the effects of aggregating land-use data by alternative levels of census geography as well as the use of different sample sizes of census blocks. It was determined that land use is best aggregated at the block group level and that entire populations or very large sample sizes of census blocks should be used with hedonic models.

Ecotourism and commodification: protecting people and places

The ability of ecotourism to protect both people and places is an unresolved, and growing, concern. Commodification of host culture and environment is a widely reported social impact of tourism and spawns an array of implications regarding indigenous peoples view of their places and themselves. The degree of impact from ecotourism development is related to the degree of market development within the indigenous community and their state of decline regarding natural resource scarcity. Pre-existing power differentials between local people and other groups may be exacerbated by ecotourism development. To protect both people and their places, native peoples claim to control should be legitimized by conservation and government authorities, particularly indigenous peoples role in technical management of the protected area. Regional and national government controls are relevant at the inception of ecotourism development, but ultimately should be reduced to one of infrastructure planning and coordination.

Recreation participation and the validity of photo-based preference judgments.

Campers interviewed onsite consistently preferred the forest around the campground they were visiting to the same forest area represented by color photos. This preference for directly observed over...

On the necessity of simultaneous recreation demand equation estimation.

This paper provides an empirical framework for testing a welfare change measure by considering the following problem: a public agency is faced with the decision of how to maximize public welfare from optimally locating a large-scale national recreational ...

The lack of an expected relationship between travel cost and contingent value estimates of forest recreation value

Abstract Using data obtained from visitors to forest campgrounds, travel cost models were developed. Bid functions and willingness‐to‐pay estimates of recreation value were derived from contingent value questions posed to campers. The willingness‐to‐pay responses were based on both photographic representations of forest scenes and on actual forest conditions at each campground. The photo‐based willingness‐to‐pay estimates were significantly correlated with scenic beauty rating estimates made for photo‐based scenes, but there was little correlation between these values and willingness‐to‐pay estimates for actual forest conditions, or estimates from travel cost models. Further, no correlation was found between travel cost estimates and contingent value estimates of the value of forest conditions on‐site. The findings raise questions about the validity and comparability of willingness‐to‐pay measures that are applied to particular types of forest recreation situations.

Conservation information: a market incentive to promote environmental quality

The land market in part of New South Wales, Australia, has been shown to conserve the soil and promote sustainable agriculture. The market incentive at work is the availability of information on the erosion status of the land. This paper explores the general possibility that provision of market information on environmental characteristics will lead to improvements in environmental quality. In this way the market would encourage landowners to conserve their land, retain native vegetation, improve biodiversity and pursue sustainable agriculture. They would do all this automatically, without government regulations, bans or moratoria, and without a new government agency or new act to implement the policy. The government officers would merely show buyers and sellers in the land market where to obtain, and how to use, the relevant information.

The Contingent and Hedonic Valuation Methods: Techniques for Valuing a Community's Resources

A common task facing many community development practitioners is to develop, assess, and/or evaluate alternative development plans and strategies dealing with communitylevel natural resources and other public goods. Often this requires that economic values be placed on such goods so that they may be efficiently and equitably utilized. In this paper, two economic techniques used for such resource valuations–the contingent and hedonic valuation methods–are presented in a relatively nontechnical manner. This includes an abbreviated history of both techniques, an overview of their respective methodologies, and the review of several actual contingent and hedonic valuation applications to various types of community-based natural resources.