A person may be willing to make an economic tradeoff to assure that a wilderness area or scenic resource is protected even if neither that person nor (perhaps) anyone else will actually visit this area. This tradeoff is commonly labeled "passive use value." Contingent valuation studies ask...

As pressures mount to develop intensive business operations along a coastline prized for its natural beauty, varied plant and wildlife and archeological sites, it is important to present decision makers with a full analysis of all values associated with the area. In this study, we examine...

Hypothetical bias continues to be a major challenge for stated preference methods. Cheap Talk (CT) has been found to be an effective remedy in some applications, though empirical results are ambiguous. We discuss reasons why CT may fail to effectively remove specific types of hypothetical bias...

As forestlands provide a variety of environmental services, the management of forest resources is a matter of public concern. In the present case of state-owned commercial forests in Finland, legislation requires specific management practices to enhance recreational benefits free of charge to...

This paper presents an economic valuation of Ulu Temburong National Park, located on the island of Borneo, which has great potential as a repository of biodiversity and an ecotourism destination. The paper employed the contingent valuation (CV) method to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) of...

In Finland, privately owned nature areas are widely used for recreation due to open public access. However, since landowners are not obligated to take everyman's rights into consideration when making management decisions, the recreational quality of nature areas is not guaranteed for users. We...

We combine contingent behaviour with travel cost data to estimate the change in the recreational use value of a National Forest due to quality and price changes. Instead of the usual improvement scenario, a hypothetical deterioration in the conditions of the forest due to a fire is considered. A...

This study focuses on the respondent rationality hypothesis, usually assumed to be true in Discrete Choice Experiments. We examine lexicographic preferences, the influence of consistency, and the role of task complexity in the individual choice process. To this end, we carry out rationality...

We examine snowmobile use conflict in Yellowstone National Park to assess the effect of different winter management policies on heterogeneous visitors’ welfare. Using a stated preference choice experiment we quantify welfare changes for snowmobile riders and non-riders under different...

For many recreational activities onsite pecuniary costs can be a significant portion of the cost of a recreational trip. Onsite expenditures, however, often depend upon endogenous quality choices made by the household. We formulate a recreation demand model that formally accounts for household...