| Abstract: | Consumer surplus for outdoor recreation has traditionally been estimated by a Clawson-Knetsch travel-cost method. This paper presents zonal consumer-surplus estimates for visitors to a number of forests and compares these estimates to those derived from individual visitor observations. Both travel-cost procedures are used to assess the magnitude of recreational benefits and are found to produce widely different consumer-surplus estimates. This raises questions about research methodology and has implications for the value of recreation associated with forestry and its contribution to the rate of return on forest investment. |
