Assessing Recreationists' Economic Benefits and Their Transferability to Other Sites

Abstract

Valuation efforts are important for policymakers to assess the effectiveness of recreation management programs and determine the optimal levels of public investment in provision of recreation opportunities. To avoid the problematic assumption that benefit estimates are equal across sites, benefit transfer is an effective tool to test the transferability of benefits to other sites. The objectives of this article are to examine benefit transfer as a pragmatic alternative to estimate values and provide empirical evidence of the validity of benefit transfer using beach access. This article explores its applicability in the leisure and recreation field and discusses implications of benefit transfer.

Keywords:

• benefit transfer
• economic values
• stated preference choice method

This project was funded by the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control, (award number NA03NOS4190101), from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce and by the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, Hatch project #0209905. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of these funding agencies. I also appreciate the insightful comments from Robert B. Ditton, Anthony W. Dixon, Jason Draper, William E. Hammitt, R. Geoff Lacher, Michael G. Sorice, and the anonymous reviewers.

Notes

∗indicates significance at 0.05 level.

∗, and

∗∗, respectively.

^a Equivalence test rejects the null hypothesis that implicit price difference is greater than 40% limit of tolerance between Myrtle Beach and Charleston beaches.

^b Equivalence test rejects the null hypothesis that implicit price difference is greater than 40% limit of tolerance between Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head Island beaches.

^c Equivalence test rejects the null hypothesis that implicit price difference is greater than 40% limit of tolerance between Charleston and Hilton Head Island beaches.

^a Equivalence test rejects the null hypothesis that welfare measure difference is greater than 40% limit of tolerance between Myrtle Beach and Charleston beaches.

^b Equivalence test rejects the null hypothesis that welfare measure difference is greater than 40% limit of tolerance between Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head Island beaches.

^c Equivalence test rejects the null hypothesis that welfare measure difference is greater than 40% limit of tolerance between Charleston and Hilton Head Island beaches.