The Opportunity Costs of Residential Displacement Due to Coastal Land Use Restrictions: A Conceptual Framework

Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Temporal Stability of Recreation Choices

We evaluate the stability of coefficient and willingness to pay (WTP) estimates for recreation services over two time periods. To address this question, we estimate a Random Utility Maximization (RUM) model of recreation demand, using two datasets from different time periods, but concerning the same study area. We then compare the estimation results and evaluate the temporal stability of preferences that drive recreation choices. The two datasets are on trips made by Delaware residents to beaches in the Mid-Atlantic region: Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland and Northern Virginia. The first dataset was collected using a mail survey in 1997 and the second dataset was gathered through an Internet survey in 2005. Besides the time periods, and the survey methods, there are also significant sample size differences between the two datasets. In the 1997 sample, 400 Delaware residents made at least one day trip, while in the 2005 dataset, only 50 Delawareans visited the beaches of interest.recreation demand, nonmarket valuation, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q51, Q26,

INCIDENTAL AND JOINT CONSUMPTION IN RECREATION DEMAND

A theory for analyzing incidental consumption in a single site recreation demand model is presented. We show that incidental consumption on a recreation trip, such as a visit to see friends or a visit to a second recreation site, can be treated as a complementary good and analyzed using conventional theory. We also show that the analysis applies whether the side trips are incidental or joint. In a simple application we find that failing to account for incidental consumption appears to create little bias in valuing recreation sites.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Preface: A Nested Logit Model of Recreational Fishing Demand in Alaska

Public Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

"State Dependence and Long Term Site Capital in a Random Utility Model of Recreation Demand"

Conventional discrete choice Random Utility Maximization (RUM) models of recreation demand ignore the influence of knowledge, or site capital, gained over past trips on current site choice, despite its obvious impact. We develop a partially dynamic RUM model that incorporates a measure of site capital as an explanatory variable in an effort to address this shortcoming. To avoid the endogeneity of past and current trip choices, we estimate an auxiliary instrumental variable regression to purge site capital of its correlation with the error terms in current site utility. Our instrumental variable regression gives a fitted value ranging between 0 and 1 for each alternative for each person – a prediction of whether or not a person visited a site. Results suggest that the presence of accumulated site capital is an important predictor of current trips, and that failure to account for site capital will likely lead to underestimates of potential welfare effects.Random Utility Model; State Dependence; Non-Market Valuation

"Valuing the Visual Disamenity of Offshore Wind Projects at Varying Distances from the Shore: An Application on the Delaware Shoreline"

Several offshore wind power projects are under consideration in the United States. A concern with any wind power project is the visual disamenity it may create. Using a stated preference choice model, we estimated the external costs to residents of the State of Delaware for offshore wind turbines located at different distances from the coast. The annual costs to inland residents was $19,$9, $1, and$0 (2006$) for turbines located at 1, 3.6, 6, and 9 miles offshore. The cost to residents living on the ocean was$80, $69,$35, and $27 for the same increments.Windfarms, View Disamenity, Valuation

"Valuing Beach Closures on the Padre Island National Seashore"

In this paper we estimate the economic loss of hypothetical beach closures on the Padre Island National Seashore on the Gulf Coast of Texas. We use a travel cost random utility maximization (RUM) model with data from a random phone survey of Texas residents completed in 2001. We simulate realistic closures that may occur in event of an oil spill or other disruption. For comparison we valued the loss of beach closures in the heavily populated Galveston area. The aggregate losses on Padre Island were highest on weekend days in July estimated at $171,000 per day of closure(2001$). They were lowest on weekdays in September at $25,000. Per trip losses were about$28. A similar closure of beaches near Galveston resulted in losses of $263,000 (week day) and$852,000 (weekend day) with a per trip loss of $30.random utility model, beach use, non-market valuation

FAMILIAR AND FAVORITE SITES IN A RANDOM UTILITY MODEL OF BEACH RECREATION

We estimate a random utility model of recreation demand accounting for choice set familiarity and favorite sites. Our approach differs from existing approaches by retaining all sites in estimating the parameters of site utility. Familiar and unfamiliar sites are specified with different utility functions. Favored sites are assumed to have higher utility than nonfavored sites in estimation.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

The economic value of viewing migratory shorebirds on the Delaware Bay: An application of the single site travel cost model using on-site data

We estimated a count data model of recreation demand using data from an on-site survey of recreational birders who had visited southern Delaware during the month–long annual horseshoe crab/shorebird spring migration in 2008. We analyzed daytrips only. Our estimates from the models ranged from $32 to$142/trip/household or about $131 to$582/season/household (2008$). The variation was due to differences in the value of time. The average household size was 1.66. We found that the valuation results were sensitive to the inclusion of covariates in the model. Our results are useful for damage assessments and benefit–cost analyses where birdwatching is affected.recreational birding, economic value, shorebird migration, onsite sampling, endogenous stratification

Measuring the recreational use value of migratory shorebirds on the Delaware Bay

In this article we estimate the recreational use value of household trips to view shorebirds during the annual horseshoe crab/shorebird migration on the Delaware Bay. We use contingent valuation to estimate the value of day and overnight trips separately and use a discrete choice question followed by a payment-card question to generate our valuation data. Our best estimates for the value of a day trip are about $66–$90/household and for an overnight trip about $200–$425/household (2008$). Our data are from the 2008 season, and our average household size is 1.66. For some context, estimates from four other studies report values that vary from$63/trip/person to $442/trip/person. These studies vary in method and specific birding populations studied and mix day and overnight trips.Contingent valuation, discrete choice, bird watching, use value