Organisations managing recreational sites commonly need to understand the factors influencing visitation choices made by the public and the impact they have on the value of their sites. This need is particularly pertinent with an increasing societal reliance on cost benefit analysis for project appraisal. Whilst on-site visitor surveys can provide information on preferences and values, the potential to transfer findings to predict visitor numbers and values at unsurveyed sites provides an attractive policy option. Indeed, the demand for these benefit transfer methodologies is increasing as more Government emphasis is placed on evaluating the economic potential of rural outdoor recreation. This research concerns the development of benefit transfer models to estimate visitor numbers from outset zones to British Waterways and Forestry Commission sites. Employing a GIS, the research uses multilevel statistical modelling techniques to quantify the impacts of the proximity to competing recreation sites, resource accessibility and quality, and the characteristics of visiting populations. The models are constructed using visitor survey data and applied to unsurveyed sites, testing their use in benefit transfer. Methods are also developed that allow their output to be used to estimate the non-market value of the recreational opportunities afforded by the resources. The findings show some robust relationships determined visit patterns, with travel times from outset zones being a consistent predictor of visitor numbers. A range of other indicators were also significant including socio-demographic measures, site characteristics and substitute availability values. Nevertheless, when individual sites were compared, considerable variability was detected in the strength and direction of these relationships. The methodology developed explicitly addresses the frequently ignored spatial dimension of benefit transfer. Here the GIS provides the functionality to produce a range of measures of the underlying determinants of recreational visits. Although further refinements are needed, the future for spatial benefit transfer models appears promising.

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Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Univ., 2001. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Although numerous theoretical traditions postulate that human fairness depends on the ratio of costs-to-benefits, theory and empirical data remain divided on the direction of the effect. Particularly, answers to the following questions have remained unclear: how cost/benefit ratios affect people’s fairness decision-making during resource allocations, how cost/benefit ratios affect people’s emotions and cognition when they receive fair or unfair treatments, whether people are intuitively selfish or fair, and how cost/benefit ratios of sharing affect it. To address these questions, I conducted three lines of studies in Chapters 2 to 4 of this dissertation. In Chapter 2, I examined how cost/benefit ratios of sharing affect people to make fair or unfair decisions in resource allocations. Results showed that more participants acted fairly when the costs were equal to the benefits as compared to when the costs were higher or lower than the benefits. Shifting from resource dividers to receivers, in Chapter 3 I tested people’s emotional responses and cognitive judgements when they receive fair or unfair treatments at different cost/benefit ratios. My findings revealed that people felt more negative under unfair treatments when the costs were equal to the benefits as compared to when the costs were higher or lower than the benefits. Findings from Chapter 2 and 3 suggested an even-split heuristic: When the costs were equal to the benefits and thus the even-split was fair, more people tended to make fair decisions, and people felt more negative about receiving an unfair offer. Building on these findings, Chapter 4 tested the even-split heuristic using a fast-slow dual process framework and proposed the Value-Heuristic Framework. Results in Chapter 4 showed that people took the shortest time to make the even-and-fair decision (i.e., the even-split was also fair). I also found that people took longer to make the even-but-not-fair decision (i.e., giving an even-split, which results in uneven payoffs), and the longest time to make the not-even-but-fair decision (i.e., giving an uneven-split that results in even payoffs). Based upon the overall findings from my three empirical chapters. I formulated a conceptual framework for explaining and predicting people’s fairness decision-making.

The purpose of this study was to track former remedial students at one of Mississippi’s community colleges in order to examine the investment effectiveness of remedial and developmental programs by conducting a cost-benefit analysis. The approach involved tracking, surveying, and evaluation. The method was selected on the basis of data needs and gaps that could enable the state’s system of community colleges to estimate the economic cost and benefits to the state, the community colleges, and the students. The study used a survey instrument, along with existing institutional data on revenues and expenditures, to ascertain whether funds generated for the support of remedial programs were cost effective and economically viable. A cost-benefit analysis was conducted by defining the purpose of the study, measuring the cost, measuring the benefits, and calculating the benefit-cost ratio. The results of the study indicated that the economic benefits of providing remedial education outweighed the economic cost.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Örebro : Örebro universitet, 2006. / Härtill 6 uppsatser.

AN ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF COASTAL \VETLANDS IN KOREA BY IIEE-DONG PYO The thesis undertakes a detailed economic analysis of the coastal wetlands of Korea and applies the double-bounded dichotomous choice model and spike model of the contingent valuation method to systematically evaluate their conservation value. Further analysis including an extension of the original spike model using only singlcbounded data (Kristrom, I ()(n) to modelling double-bounded data for more statistical efficiency to deal with /.ero observations was made. As a result, the estimated willingness-to-pay for conserving the coastal wetlands under the study is S3.9 per month per household, and the annual aggregated conservation value for the entire nation is about 175 million dollars in a conservative scenario. The study then applies a benefit-cost analysis (8C';\) to coastal wetlands around the Youngsan River, an area of dispute between development and preservation in Korea, with a synthesised estimation of the ecosystcm functional values for coastal wetlands and rice paddies developed by reclamation. The results show wetland development would be preferred to its preservation in an optimistic seenano and conventional BC A, yielding NPV of $49million at the discount rate of 8(Yo, IRR of 8.28%, and B/C ratio of 1.03. By contrast, a normal scenario rejects economic feasibility for the development project at the discount rate of 8°/c), yielding a NPV of -$271 million, IRR of 6.5% and B/C ratio of 0.84. With an extended Be A including conservation values for I-year, 5-year and 1 O-year payment, the estimates of IRR are 7.42%, 5.42%, and 4.06%, respectively under the optimistic scenario. Meanwhile, under the nOnllal Scenario the estimates of IRR arc 5.85%, 4.25%, and 3.09%, respectively. In addition, this study includes a discussion of a comprehensiYe review of conjoint analysis and the integrated environmental management of coastal wetlands developing sustainability indicators for coastal lisheries using bio-economic models in Appendix.

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No description available.