Social Capital and the Value of Hunting Club Memberships

Abstract

When the state of New York purchased the Champion Lands in the Adirondack Park and subsequently terminated the leases of 48 hunting clubs on these lands, opponents of the purchase argued that: (1) a rich and unique culture was being destroyed; and (2) that the State failed to include the loss of this social capital in an economic impact analysis as specified by the State Environmental Quality and Review Act. In this study, responses to dichotomous choice contingent valuation (DC-CV) questions are used to estimate the value a member attaches to a hunting club membership. The willingness-to- pay (WTP) for a hunting club membership (beyond other hunting-related expenses) is estimated to be over $1,290, which corresponds to a total value of about $1.9 million for the 1,500 hunters in the 48 concerned clubs. These estimates should be included in a full benefit-cost analysis of the purchase, and provide useful input to the societal debate regarding future land purchases by states.

Keywords:

• social capital
• hunting clubs
• contingent valuation
• state land purchases

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Robert Berrens, Robert Blewett, Glenn Harris, Cliff Nowell, David Richardson, Jason Shogren, Jerry Vaske, members of the St. Lawrence County Environmental Management Council and two anonymous reviewers for their comments. Financial assistance by the Dean's office of St. Lawrence University is gratefully acknowledged.

Notes

1 The total economic value of a hunt club membership could be obtained using a willingness-to-accept (WTA) compensation for the loss strategy as opposed to a willingness-to-pay for the gain. It would be expected that WTA compensation would be greater than WTP amounts. The appropriate measure to use for a benefit-cost analysis depends on the property right. According to the nature of the situation, the implicit right was given to the State's purchase of Champion Lands; as such, the policy-relevant question becomes willingness-to-pay for a membership.