COMPENSATORY RESTORATION IN A RANDOM UTILITY MODEL OF RECREATION DEMAND

"Natural Resource Damage Assessment cases often call for compensation in non-monetary or restoration equivalent terms. In this article, we present an approach that uses a conventional economic model, a travel cost random utility model of site choice, to determine compensatory restoration equivalents for hypothetical beach closures on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Our focus is on closures of beaches on the Padre Island National Seashore and compensation for day-trip users. We identify restoration projects that compensate for beach closures and that have good alignment in terms of compensating those who actually suffer from the closures." ("JEL" Q26) Copyright (c) 2010 Western Economic Association International.