Hotelling's Theory, Enhancement, and the Taking of the Redwood National Park

We estimate a reduced form model of the redwood timber industry that is consistent with Hotelling's exhaustible resource theory. The consequences for this theory of various assumptions about the elasticity of expectations are derived. The estimated equations are used to test the hypotheses about expectations. We also use these equations to find the amount that owners of redwood not taken for the Redwood National Park benefited from the park's establishment.