Post on 14-Dec-2015
transcript
Economic Value of Public Access to Great Lakes Beaches
Frank Lupi,1 Feng Song & Michael Kaplowitz
1 Department of Ag, Food, & Resource Economics; Department of Fisheries and Wildlife;
Partnership for Ecosystem Research and Management
Beaches are Priceless?
• Not bought and sold in markets…– But valued by people…
• Use “Non market valuation” techniques
• Gap in literature– Dozens of studies on saltwater beach values– Only a couple for GL beaches
Use “travel cost method”
• Method of estimating demand and value for recreation related resources
• Uses time & money costs of travel as the price of recreation trips
• Use trips & price to estimate demand
• Relate this to site features
• Use to value and forecast demand response when site features or access change
Beach Recreation Model
• Usage = Fn(travel costs, environmental quality)• Behavioral Model
– How uses change when EQ changes– Can use for economic valuation
Beaches are Everywhere…
One beach, people all over
Where do they come from?
Single person, beaches all over
Were do they go?
People from Everywhere…
Recreational Uses/Behavioral Models(Research steps)
• Collect data with surveys of users
• Collect data on environmental quality of sites
– Needs spatial & temporal variation
• Econometric modeling
• Application
Beach Uses
• “Pilot” survey
• Collected data on Michigan GL beach use
– Web survey, N=3,286
– Beach visited the most in past years, N=2,566
• Located 1,710 of these
• Estimated basic demand models
– Trips significantly & positively related to beach length and fewer beach closure days
Model Specification
• Estimated as “two-level nested logit”
• GL Beaches in MDEQ database– grouped at zipcode level– 143 site groups
• Data for Michigan residents only (our sample)
25 Most-Valued GL BeachesResident’s net benefits per predicted trip
• A trip to typical site is worth $48/day.
• The value of “access” to the site
Value to Users of GL Beaches
Great Lake
Value all beaches at
this GL(per “any” trip)
Total Values13 mil trips 26 mil trips
Michigan $75.55 $982 mil $1,964 mil
Huron $13.89 $180 mil $361 mil
Erie (St.Clair) $13.28 $173 mil $345 mil
Superior $2.67 $35 mil $69 mil
What’s Missing
• Trip data– Better estimates of total trips– Timing of trips (when in the season)
• Additional site variables– Water clarity, slope, facilities, water
temp, advisories at time, crowding, waves, etc.
• Good average site values– Find advisory effects, possible
stigma, but not ready for closure valuation via dX