Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 May 2017
A commonly visualized benefit from natural resources is outdoor recreation including activities such as fishing, hunting, hiking, and nature study. Due to the extra-market nature of these activities, monetary measures of the benefits emanating from them require use of some kind of simulated prices. The procedure most widely used for this purpose has been that of estimating a demand function, using differential travel costs associated with the locational dispersion of the recreationists, as a proxy price variable. These methodologies may be labeled as “willingness to pay” approaches and have been used by a number of economists.
This work was supported by funds provided by the United States Department of the Interior, Office of Water Resources, as authorized under the Water Resources Research Act of 1964 (P.L. 88–379), Dr. Joseph S. Larson, Principal Investigator. The authors are also thankful to Professors N. Eugene Engel, Elmar Jarvesoo, and Julius Fabos for their comments on an earlier version of this paper.