Steven F. Edwards

Estimating the value of beach recreation from property values: An exploration with comparisons to nourishment costs

Abstract This paper explores how the economic value of recreation at local public beaches can be estimated from nearby property values. The negative effect of distance from the nearest public beach on coastal property values was used to reveal recreational value. Estimates of recreational value were also compared to the costs of beach nourishment that were calculated from a simulation of beach erosion caused, in part, by increases in relative sea-level. Although a complete benefit-cost analysis was not feasible, the results suggest that potential losses of recreational value by local users alone could establish the efficiency of beach nourishment projects.

3 – A Framework for Monitoring and Assessing Socioeconomics and Governance of Large Marine Ecosystems1

This chapter has described a framework for assessing and monitoring the salient socioeconomic and governance elements of LMEs. The assessment and monitoring framework consists of 12 steps that, if applied, are expected to produce the essential information required for adaptive ecosystem management. The ecosystem paradigm is emerging as the dominant approach to managing natural resources in the U.S., as well as internationally. The shift away from the management of individual resources to the broader perspective of ecosystems has not been confined to academia and think tanks where it first began; it also is beginning to take root in government policy and programs. Many have advocated a new, broader approach to managing the nations natural resources. The approach recognizes that plant and animal communities are interdependent and interact with their physical environment to form distinct ecological units called ecosystems. The approach also recognizes that many human actions and their consequences, including marine pollution, extend across jurisdictional boundaries. This chapter presents a methodology for determining what is known of the socioeconomic and governance aspects—the human dimensions—of LME management. The chapter describes a basic framework for identifying the salient socioeconomic and governance elements and processes of an LME. Methods for monitoring and assessing the various elements and processes are also discussed in the chapter. There is description on the human dimensions of LMES, monitoring and assessment, applications of the monitoring and assessment framework, property rights entitlements and regimes for LME management, the structure of property rights entitlements in an LME, property rights regimes and management of LME resources. Property rights paradigm could be the framework necessary to design LME resource management policies for long-term economic growth and resource sustainability. Property rights establish the incentives and time-horizons for resource use and investment.

Cooperatives in US fisheries: realizing the potential of the fishermen's collective marketing act

The economic successes of recent quota-based harvest cooperatives in the Pacific Northwest and an Alaskan salmon marketing cooperative highlight the potential for more extensive forms of collective behavior afforded by the Fishermens Collective Marketing Act (FCMA) of 1934. Court rulings during the 1930s-1950s clarified what was considered anti-competitive behavior by fishermens groups, but the lack of controls on entry and harvests in the mostly open access fisheries undermined the full potential of the FCMA. With more fisheries now being managed by limited access and quotas, fishery cooperatives will be better able to share harvest capacity and/or profits, reduce costs, improve product quality, and negotiate prices.

Evidence of Structural Change in Preferences for Seafood

The results from graphical and regression analyses of time-series data on seafood consumption and prices suggest that preferences for seafood have strengthened in response to medical evidence that seafood promotes nutrition and health. The graphical analysis reveals a trend of increased per capita consumption of seafood since the late 1960s despite concurrent increases in the relative price of seafood. The two-phase regression analyses of per capita consumption and of the relative price of seafood identified the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s as possible times of accelerated change in preferences. These results, which match those reported for consumption of poultry and red meats, have important implications for modeling derived demand in landings markets, for estimating welfare, and for managing fishing effort and multiple uses of fish stocks.

Land Use Conflicts in the Coastal Zone: An Approach for the Analysis of the Opportunity Costs of Protecting Coastal Resources

The implicit price (hedonic) equation for the housing market in a coastal town in southern Rhode Island was estimated using a conditional Box-Cox maximum likelihood procedure. Linear, log-linear, and semi-log functional forms were rejected with 95% confidence. Estimates of marginal implicit prices for water related attributes (view of, frontage on, and proximity to a coastal salt water pond) derived from these rejected models were quite different from those determined from the optimal functional form. This result has important ramifications for public policy, as is shown in an example, since these attributes were found to be highly valued in the housing market.

Protecting Rhode Island's coastal salt ponds: An economic assessment of downzoning

Abstract In southern Rhode Island, there is growing concern that housing and recreational demands will soon overwhelm the capacity of the coastal salt ponds to absorb wastes, produce seafood, and maintain scenic qualities. As a result, coastal towns have been studying the feasibility of using land controls such as downzoning to protect these coastal amenities. The paper presents an economic analysis of the downzoning program proposed in the town of South Kingstown. Hedonic price and contingent valuation methods are used to value coastal amenities. The estimated net present value of “swimmable” water is shown to be

The demand for galapagos vacations: Estimation and application to wilderness preservation

3.1 million.

Option prices for groundwater protection

Abstract The demand for Galapagos vacations by ecotourists was estimated using hedonic demand analysis, a technique being developed by environmental economists. In turn, the demand model was used to explore how a fiscal policy of maximizing tax revenues could help to satisfy the alleged incompatible goals of wilderness preservation and economic growth. Constrained to a carrying capacity of 125,000 visitor days, there is potential to raise about

Overlooked Biases in Contingent Valuation Surveys: Some Considerations

30 million (U.S.) by substantially increasing the entrance fee charged to ecotourists. This tax revenue could be used to finance both conservation of the Galapagos wilderness and investment in Ecuadors economy.