title: RESEARCH: An Ecoregional Approach to the Economic Valuation of Land- and Water-Based Recreation in the United States
abstract: / This paper describes a framework for estimating the economic value of outdoor recreation across different ecoregions. Ten ecoregions in the continental United States were defined based on similarly functioning ecosystem characters. The individual travel cost method was employed to estimate recreation demand functions for activities such as motor boating and waterskiing, developed and primitive camping, coldwater fishing, sightseeing and pleasure driving, and big game hunting for each ecoregion. While our ecoregional approach differs conceptually from previous work, our results appear consistent with the previous travel cost method valuation studies.KEY WORDS: Recreation; Ecoregion; Travel cost method; Truncated Poisson model
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Georgia, 208 Conner Hall, Athens, Georgia 30602, USA
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bhat
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bergstrom
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Teasley
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Bowker
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Cordell