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The objective of this paper is to understand whether greater involvement of local councils in the planning and development of the infills generate a better outcome for the residents as reflected through house prices. The Australian population is growing at a rapid rate and is expected to double by 2061. Two main approaches to tackle increasing population are the development of greenfields at the urban growth boundary and densification in the established areas (commonly known as infill). Given the limitation of greenfields development, infill has become popular. Many cities and metropolitan areas have established infill target. For example, in Sydney it is expected that by 2031 60% to 70% of the new dwellings will be supplied from in-fill. Similar targets have been set for other cities, for example, in Melbourne 61% by 2051, in Perth 47% by 2031 and in Adelaide 70% by 2040. Given such high level of infill targets it is important to manage the process in an integrated fashion as unplanned infill development could induce loss of green infrastructure and natural waterways. Local Councils play an important role by working with developers to achieve community goals and provide more public benefits to the residents. It timely to know to what extent their direct involvement in infill and residential development improve social welfare. Such information will contribute to more effective implementation of the infill project through an optimal level of involvement by local governments. Our case study consists of the Cities of Salisbury, Onkaparinga and Port Adelaide in South Australia. We use sales of homes built after 2000 following a subdivision. We classify infill developments by the three levels of involvement of the local council into the planning and development process. The “limited” level of involvement from the Councils is primarily reliant on policies of the Councils’ Development Plans. The “preliminary” level of involvement is related to high-level land division design and layout outcomes, such as connectivity to adjoining open space, road network, stormwater infrastructure. The “high” level of involvement from the Councils may, in addition, include rezoning to enable specific development policy to more explicitly guide development outcomes or design guidelines for dwellings design. We estimate a hedonic pricing model which includes spatial and temporal fixed effects, house characteristics, and a categorical variable that indicates the level of involvement of the Local Councils into the planning and development process. The preliminary result indicates that the “high” level of involvement of the Councils is associated with higher house prices in comparison with the subdivisions with “limited” or “preliminary” input by the Council. These results demonstrate the value of the Councils’ more active involvement with residential development.

supplementary_material for What are tourists willing to pay for securing the survival of a flagship species? The case of protection of the Ethiopian wolf by Tafesse Estifanos, Maksym Polyakov, Ram Pandit, Atakelty Hailu and Michael Burton in Tourism Economics

Ethiopian wolf, Canis simensis, is among the most threatened carnivore species in Africa. Habitat loss and disease transmission threaten its survival. Our understanding of the wolf’s contributions to ecosystem services and economic benefits of its preservation is limited because there has been insufficient research on economic valuation. This study uses choice experiments to investigate preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for conservation programs among tourists travelling to the Bale Mountains National Park, one of the major habitats for the wolf. Program attributes valued include size of the protected area, size of the wolf population, tourist access to wolf habitat and recreational facilities. A random parameter logit model is fitted to the data to account for heterogeneity in preferences. The results show that tourists WTP is up to Ethiopian Birr 130.81 (US$ 5.82)/day/trip for enhancement of the wolf population from 200 to 250 wolves, but very little beyond that level. The visitors are willing to pay for the increase of protected area and the ease of access to the wolf habitat. Visitors WTP is significantly influenced by prior visitor experience in other protected areas in Ethiopia and interest in viewing other unique species in the park. The findings suggest that non-use values must be taken into account in decisions on the nature and magnitude of more appropriate Ethiopian wolf conservation programs.