Search

Using a survey of Chicago beachgoers, this research examines the effect of uncertain response options on the willingness to pay to reduce swimming bans. Various recoding options are tested and implemented, as well as multinomial model for choice. Estimates are compared to those from a dataset with certainty, as well as to those from revealed preference methods. The reasons and sources for uncertainty are explored and compared across samples.

This research examines the effects of various factors on farmer participation in agricultural tree plantations for economic, environmental, social and carbon-uptake purposes, and potential costs of sequestering carbon through afforestation in western Canada. Using data from a survey of landowners, a discrete choice random utility model is used to determine the probability of landowners’ participation and corresponding mean willingness to accept (WTA) compensation for a tree-planting program. WTA includes positive and negative benefits to landowners from planting trees, benefits not captured by foregone returns from agricultural activities on marginal land. Estimates of WTA are less than foregone returns, but even so average costs of creating carbon credits still exceed their projected value under a CO2-emissions trading scheme.

We examine the impact of uncertainty on contingent valuation responses using (1) a survey of Canadian landowners about willingness to accept compensation for converting cropland to forestry and (2) a survey of Swedish residents about willingness to pay for forest conservation. Five approaches from the literature for incorporating respondent uncertainty are used and compared to the traditional RUM model with assumed certainty. The results indicate that incorporating uncertainty has the potential to increase fit, but could introduce additional variance. While some methods for uncertainty are an improvement over traditional approaches, we caution against systematic judgments about the effect of uncertainty on contingent valuation responses.

Using a survey of western Canadian agricultural landowners, we examine the cost and viability of two distinct afforestation options for carbon-uptake purposes. Responses to two separate, but most-likely related willingness to accept compensation questions are elicited using the contingent valuation method. Respondents then select the level of certainty with which they believe their responses were given. This paper provides a framework for estimation of the bivariate model with certainty and a modification of the model to incorporate uncertainty based on Li and Mattson's approach to preference uncertainty. While highly preliminary results are given for the bivariate model with certainty, applications of both models will be presented at the 2003 AAEA Meetings.

This research examines effects of various factors on farmer participation in agricultural tree plantations for economic, environmental, social and carbon-uptake purposes. Using data from a survey of Canadian agricultural landowners, a discrete choice random utility model is used to determine the probability of farmers' participation and corresponding mean willingness to accept (WTA) compensation for a tree-planting program. WTA includes positive and negative nonmarket benefits to landowners from planting trees. Estimates of WTA are less than foregone agricultural rents, but average costs of creating carbon credits still exceed their projected value under a CO2-emissions trading scheme

How researchers treat the opportunity cost of time substantially influences recreation demand parameter and welfare estimates. This paper presents a utility-theoretic and implementable approach, estimating the shadow value of time jointly with recreation demands for coastal activities, using a generalization of the semilog demand system in a two-constraint model.

This research examines effects of various factors on participation in agricultural tree plantations for economic, environmental, social and carbon-uptake purposes. Using survey data from 2000 mail surveys of Canadian farmers, a discrete choice random utility analysis is used to determine probability of farmers' participation and the corresponding mean willingness to accept a tree-planting program. Estimation results show that the required compensation for accepting a tree-planting program is higher than the compensation suggested by a normative approach

The varying researcher assumptions about model specification in nested-logit random utility models can have significant effects on model estimates and corresponding welfare measures. Using a three-level nested-logit model of Oregon marine sport fishing, we estimate and compare several models with varying assumptions of choice sequence and income effects.

An alternative methodology for determining marginal willingness to pay values for recreational fishing trips is developed based on inverse demand systems and the distance function. Our empirical application uses joint estimation of several species-specific site equations from a recreation fishing data set. Results are compared to a random utility model.

Theoretical restrictions implied by the two-constraint recreation demand model are developed. The structure necessary to specify empirical models shows that most current models of recreation incorporate time in a manner inconsistent with theory. Results are applicable to all recreationists and are particularly useful to those with endogenous marginal values of time.

Multiproduct, multispecies revenue functions are estimated for the midwater and bottom-trawl pollock fisheries off Alaska. There are strong year and seasonal effects on coefficient estimates, and the technology is joint in outputs for each major operation type. The model is a step toward prediction of fishery regulatory effects.

This research seeks to produce more robust, less biased estimates from the two-constraint recreation demand model by applying globally flexible estimation techniques to travel cost data for California whale watching trips. While locally flexible functional forms do improve upon previously used restrictive forms imposed for estimation of travel cost models, specification errors occur unless the chosen form happens to coincide with the true unknown underlying form. A globally flexible functional form can consistently approximate the true function and its derivatives for all points in the sample range. This paper seeks to reduce specification error and improve accuracy of estimates from the two-constraint recreation demand model by using a globally flexible functional form. The empirical model is based on a construction by Chalfant (1987), which combines Deaton and Muellbauer's AIDS model with the Fourier flexible form of Gallant. The resulting functional form preserves the aggregation properties of the PIGLOG class of preferences while approximating the true function within an arbitrary degree of precision. A comparison of model estimation results shows that the locally flexible AIDS model results in specification error. Further research of an extension of the model, which combines travel cost data with contingent valuation responses to hypothetical population enhancements, is briefly discussed.