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We estimate a travel cost model for the George Washington & Jefferson National Forests using an On-Site Latent Class Poisson Model. We show that the constraints of ad-hoc truncation and homogenous preferences significantly impact consumer surplus estimates derived from the on-site travel cost model. By relaxing the constraints, we show that more than one class of visitors with unique preferences exists in the population. The resulting demand functions, price responsive behaviors, and consumer surplus estimates reflect differences across these classes of visitors. With heterogeneous preferences, a group of 'local residents' exists with a probability of 8% and, on average take 113 visits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As agriculture faces documented decline in bees and other insect pollinators, empirical assessments of potential economic losses are critical for contextualizing the impacts of this decline and for prioritizing research needs. For the state of Georgia, we show that the annual economic value of biotic pollinators is substantial--US$367 million, equivalent to 13 percent of the total production value of crops studied and 3 percent of the total production value of Georgia's agricultural sector. Our unique Geographic Information Systems analysis reveals an irregular pattern of vulnerability. While the Georgia counties displaying the highest economic values of pollination are clustered in southern Georgia, those with the highest dependency on pollinators in terms of their contribution to crop production value are more dispersed throughout the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economists have generated an abundance of willingness to pay estimates to help inform U.S. farmland protection policies. Stated preference approaches are often used for such estimations, with an increasing reliance placed on discrete choice models such as mixed logit, in which results can be sensitive to minor specification changes. This paper evaluates how and to what extent this sensitivity is policy relevant. Drawing from a case study of agricultural conservation easements in Georgia, we characterize the sensitivity of choice experiment welfare estimates to common variations in mixed logit specification. Results suggest that practitioners should provide greater attention to the potential implications of often unnoticed modeling choices in discrete choice welfare estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Understanding customer satisfaction is critical to the successful operation of both privately and publicly managed recreation venues. A popular tool for assessing recreation visitor satisfaction is Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA). IPA provides resource managers, government officials, and private businesses with easy-to-understand and -use information about visitor preferences and satisfaction for selected site characteristics and management issues. Many improvements have been made to IPA since its inception, strengthening the validity of results and providing managers with knowledge for better decision making. This study adds to this list of improvements by examining the effect of trip frequency bias, or endogenous stratification, on IPA scores and then demonstrating a simple bias correction procedure. The issue of endogenous stratification was examined with three variations of an on-site sample of visitors to the Virginia Creeper Trail (VCT). Statistical tests for differences between the typical calculation of IPA scores and a weighting procedure which corrects for endogenous stratification or trip frequency bias were conducted. Findings suggested that accounting for bias, resulting from over-representation of frequent visitors, can lead to IPA results statistically different from those more conventionally calculated. By adjusting for endogenous stratification, the IPA graphs in this study provide a more accurate picture of the tastes and preferences of the visitor population. For managers, conventionally calculated IPA could lead to misclassifying the importance or performance of site characteristics or features into the wrong IPA quadrant and thus adversely affecting management of site resources. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

At least thirty studies have been conducted in North America over the last twenty-plus years that measure amenity values generated by farmland. A review of these studies provides evidence that estimated farmland amenity values are sensitive to increasing acreage, regional scarcity, alternative land use(s), public accessibility, productivity quality, human food plants, active farming, and intensive agriculture. Farmland amenity values are also sensitive to socio-demographic characteristics of beneficiaries. Inconclusive evidence is provided with respect to the effects of distance, agricultural land use, unique landscape features, property rights, and nonfarmland amenity substitutes. Implications of these results for future farmland amenity valuation research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many communities are interested in developing and maintaining recreational trails to benefit trail users and as tourist attractions to stimulate economic growth. In this paper, a study is described which estimates the net economic value to trail users and the local economic impacts of the Virginia Creeper Rail Trail in south-western Virginia, USA. The monetary valuation results suggest that the trail is a highly valuable asset to the people who enjoy using it and to local businesses who benefit from trail-related tourist expenditures. The integrated valuation methodology and results can facilitate quantification of recreational trail economic benefits in other locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem services are the specific results of ecosystem processes that either directly sustain or enhance human life (as does natural protection from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays) or maintain the quality of ecosystem goods (as water purification maintains the quality of stream flow). ‘Ecosystem service’ has come to represent several related topics ranging from the measurement to the marketing of ecosystem service flows. In this article we examine several of these topics by first clarifying the meaning of ‘ecosystem service’ and then (1) placing ecosystem goods and services within an economic framework, emphasizing the role and limitations of substitutes; (2) summarizing the methods for valuation of ecosystem goods and services; and (3) reviewing the various approaches for their provision and financing. Many ecosystem services and some ecosystem goods are received without monetary payment. The ‘marketing’ of ecosystem goods and services is basically an effort to turn such recipients — those who benefit without ownership — into buyers, thereby providing market signals that serve to help protect valuable goods and services. We review various formal arrangements for making this happen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognition of the benefits to society supported by estuary ecosystem functions and services, and threats to these benefits posed by human activities, has led to various public programs to restore and protect estuaries at the federal, state, and local levels. As available budgets shrink, program administrators and public elected officials struggle to allocate limited restoration and protection funds to the highest priority areas. Economic benefit and cost information can provide useful inputs into this decision-making process by quantifying estuary restoration and protection benefits and costs in commensurate terms. In this paper, a combined actual and intended travel behavior model is described that can be applied to estimate the recreational fishing benefits of estuary restoration and protection. The model was estimated for recreational fishing in the Lower Atchafalaya River Basin estuary along the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, USA coast. Changes in freshwater flows into this estuary may affect redfish and speckled trout game fish populations. The model indicates that changes in catch rates of these two species would have a relatively minor affect on annual fishing trips per angler. However, because total effects may be large when effects per angler are aggregated across total anglers, resource management agencies should consider these changes in recreation benefits when evaluating projects that influence the ecology of coastal estuaries, fish populations, and catch rates. Moreover, in other coastal areas or situations, the responsiveness of angling trips to changes in catch rates may vary because of differences in user populations, environmental conditions, fish populations, and fishing experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about the values immigrant groups or U.S.-born racial and ethnic minorities attribute to wilderness. However, the views of these groups are important to wilderness preservation because of increasing diversity along ethnic, cultural, and racial lines in the United States. We examine the proposition that wilderness is a social construction (valued primarily by U.S.-born Whites) by comparing wilderness values for immigrants and U.S.-born minority respondents to Whites. Results from 10 wilderness value items show immigrants are significantly less likely to indicate on-site use value. Among U.S.-born racial/ethnic groups, Black respondents were least likely to indicate values associated with visitation and off-site use but as likely as Whites to indicate a value for continued existence of wilderness. U.S.-born Asians and Latinos were also less likely than Whites to indicate values relating to wilderness on-site use. Implications of findings for wilderness as social construction are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential sensitivity of environmentalresource valuation to payment vehicles is ofinterest to researchers and decision-makersinvolved in estimating and applying thesenumbers. A conceptual model is developed whichprovides insight into how the different paymentvehicles of a special tax and a taxreallocation affects the willingness to pay(WTP) for environmental goods. Hypothesistesting using contingent valuation datasuggests WTP with a tax reallocation is higherthan WTP with a special tax for ground waterquality protection in Georgia and Maine, USA.Technical measurement and welfare analysisimplications and limitations of valuing andfinancing public environmental goods using taxrealloactions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors develop a contingent trip model to estimate the recreation demand for and value of a potential rail-trail site in north-east Georgia. The contingent trip model is an alternative to travel cost modelling useful for ex ante evaluation of proposed recreation resources or management alternatives. The authors estimate the empirical demand for trips using a negative binomial regression specification. Their findings indicate a per-trip consumer surplus ranging from US$18.46 to US$29.23 and a price elasticity of -0.68. In aggregate, they estimate that the rail-trail would receive approximately 416 213 recreation visits per year by area households and account for a total consumer surplus in excess of US$7.5 million. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sample nonresponse and selection biases that may occur in survey research such as contingent valuation applications are discussed and tested. Correction mechanisms for these types of biases are demonstrated. Results indicate the importance of testing and correcting for unit and item nonresponse bias in contingent valuation survey data. When sample nonresponse and selection bias go uncorrected, welfare measures may be overestimated or underestimated contributing to potential errors in resource policy and management decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluation and implementation of policies affecting wetlands management may require measurement of the economic value of the policies to individuals and groups. A potentially powerful means for measuring changes in wetlands-based recreational values is the use of value estimator models. The general specification and potential applications of value estimator models for wetlands-based recreational use values are discussed in this paper. Future research needs are also identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential sensitivity of environmental resource valuations to information concerning the resource is of interest to researchers and decision-makers involved in estimating and applying these numbers. An analysis of the impact of characteristic and service information on the economic value of groundwater quality is described. Characteristic information details the objectively measurable traits of a resource, while service information describes the consumption services provided by the resource. The analysis provides insight into the impact of information on environmental resource valuation decisions. Hypothesis tests suggest that changes in the joint levels of information may cause significant changes in groundwater quality valuation behavior. More theoretical and empirical research is required before firm conclusions can be drawn concerning the effects of information on groundwater value estimates (e.g., estimated willingness-to-pay for groundwater protection). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Examines the local economic effects of spending associated with outdoor recreation in selected rural areas in the United States. Lack of empirical evidence; Expenditures collected as part of the Public Area Recreation Visitors Study; Estimation of economic impact using regional input-output models developed from the USDA Forest Service input-output model and data base system; Results.

BSTRACT: The full range of environmental and economic services of ground water need to be accounted for in policy decisions. Non-recognition of these services imputes a lower value for the ground water resource in establishing policies. We describe a conceptual framework for identifying and measuring the economic value of groundwater. The valuation framework links changes in physical characteristics of ground water to services provided by ground water and the economic effects of changes in ground water services. In addition to the framework, we develop a general protocol to follow for assessing the benefits of ground water policies. Application of the protocol will aid in establishing structure and consistency across policy assessments and improve the accuracy and completeness of benefit estimates, avoid double-counting problems, and eliminate duplication of ground water valuation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BSTRACT: Outdoor recreation is a major, growing use of water resources in the United States. The economic effects of expenditures by visitors to three recreational river sites on local economies surrounding the sites were estimated using an input-output model (IMPL.AN). Expenditure data were from the Public Area Recreation Visitors Study (PARVS). Results indicate that visitor spending stimulates a considerable amount of economic activity and growth in local economies. Economic effects include increases in total gross output ranging from $2.6 million to $13.4 million, increases in total income ranging from $1.2 million to $5.6 million, and increases in employment ranging from 60 to 292 jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to present the model and method developed for the aggregate, national outdoor recreation and wilderness demand and supply assessment required by the Renewable Resources Planning Act (RPA) of 1974. RPA requires aggregate analysis of current and possible future equilibria that could result from different demand and supply futures. Price change was used as the principle indicator of changes in demand relative to changes in supply for individual recreation activities. Demand functions and reduced‐form consumption functions were estimated for 38 activities, 10 of which are presented here. This approach provided prediction models, indices of future consumption and price trends, and average community demand under various supply conditions. The underlying model is based on household production theory viewed as an appropriate basis for aggregate economic analysis. Adjusted R2s for the demand and consumption models ranged between 0.32 and 0.71. Predicted consumption and price changes ranged between 7 and 78% and ‐5 and +8% (in real terms), respectively. These ranges reflect likely consumption and price trends to the year 2010, depending on whether future supply of recreation opportunities decreases, remains constant, grows moderately, or grows rapidly. Results show that equilibrium trip consumption and prices can be estimated nationwide and that these results are quite sensitive to recreation opportunity (supply) growth rates. The methods developed for this analysis should prove useful in other ongoing comprehensive planning and assessment efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A laboratory‐type experiment was conducted to examine potential information overload causes and solutions. It was found that both information quantity and information complexity are potential causes of information overload. The experiment results also suggested that information overload problems may be reduced through carefully designed information display patterns. When designing survey questionnaires, attention must be given to potential causes of information overload. Methods of presenting information that ameliorate information overload must also be considered. As demonstrated in this study, survey designs can be tested in controlled, laboratory‐type experiments. The results of these experiments can then be used to improve the design of field survey questionnaires. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The demand for wildlife viewing sites is assessed using a trip response model. This model uses anticipated trips to estimate a demand function for proposed designated wildelife viewing sites. The estimated function suggests that the market area for wildlife viewing sites is relatively local. Potential site visitors would be willing to pay an average of about $58 per trip. The results suggest that there is significant demand for nonconsumptive wildlife viewing opportunities in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Throughout the United States, reservoirs are managed for multiple uses, including hydropower, stream flow regulation, flood control, and recreation. Water level drawdowns for hydropower, stream flow regulation, and flood control often reduce the suitability of reservoirs for water-based recreation. The gain in aggregate economic use value of outdoor recreation under three alternative water level management scenarios was measured for four reservoirs in western North Carolina as part of an interagency policy analysis. Use values were estimated using a contingent valuation survey and expert panel data. The basic question addressed by this study was whether the value recreational users place on higher water levels held longer into the summer and fall is significantly greater than the value of using these reservoirs as they were managed at the time of this study. Maintaining high water levels for longer periods during the summer and fall was found to result in considerable gains in estimated recreational benefits. While not a primary objective of this study, having these estimates provided us an opportunity to compare increased recreational benefits with the value the Tennessee Valley Authority estimated for the reduced production of electricity that would result if the lakes were managed to hold reservoir levels higher, longer into the year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benefit transfer has been an ongoing, practical analysis for years in legal proceedings and government policy analyses where timely benefit estimates are critically dependent on the use of existing data. Most benefit transfer studies to date have been conducted behind closed doors and have not been open to scholarly review, and no systematic research agenda has been established to determine whether benefit transfer estimates are valid for public policy analyses. In this paper we propose a systematic, conceptual foundation for conducting benefit transfer studies, and suggest a research agenda to identify conditions under which valid benefit transfer estimates can be derived. We conclude, however, that this research agenda must be accompanied by improved conduct and reporting of original valuation studies before benefit transfer can become a widely used tool in public policy analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assesses the worth of American Agricultural Economics Association (AAEA) meetings. Estimation of attendee valuation using Professional Activities Committee survey of the 1990 Vancouver meetings; Measurement of registrants participation; Survey of collected expenditure and willingness-to-pay (WTP); Variety of professional and personal reasons for attendance.

Analysis a conceptual model which provides an insight into how service information affects willingness to pay for environmental commodities. Development of a refutable hypothesis of the effects of a specific information type on the magnitude of willingness to pay for an environmental commodity; Impact of information on the willingness to pay in a theoretically plausible manner.

Information "bias" in contingent markets is poorly understood. In this paper, testable hypotheses concerning beneficial contingent market information effects are developed conceptually. Perspective information and relative expenditure information were expected to increase comprehension and increase bids. Provision cost information was expected to counteract free-riding behavior and also increase bids. Hypothesis tests using experimental markets suggested that each information type induced small, statistically insignificant bid increases. However, the combined effect of the three information types induced a desirable, statistically significant increase in bids. This result supports the contention that not all contingent market information effects are "biases." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) is now an established source of radiation in the terahertz region, with flux capabilities many orders of magnitude higher than conventional SR sources. Accordingly, CSR is playing an ever-increasing role in the field of Far-IR spectroscopy at synchrotron facilities around the world. However, with the improvement in spectroscopic resolution, the incident CSR spectra from several facilities are displaying intensity profiles that appear to be modulated by periodic peaks or deep indentations, while theory predicts a featureless distribution. After eliminating the usual suspects, like multiple reflections from windows, etc., one looks for a deeper explanation, such as the role played by the radiation impedance. This impedance is largely defined by the vacuum chamber in the region of the bend magnets, but probably with some effects from the straight sections as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an introduction to a series of articles on the importance of conserving agricultural land. One of the articles mentions how multifunctional agriculture is useful not only to the residents but also to the nonresidents of the place. Another article focuses on the values of agricultural land and yet another discusses the efficiency of agricultural land protection programs.

Presents a response to the commentary on the status of benefits transfer (BT) in the U.S. and Canada. Characteristics of some BT approach; Information on the value surface testing procedure.