Wetlands provide recreation and cultural values including scenic views, aesthetics, open-spaces, and leisure opportunities to surrounding residents. This study applies a hedonic approach to estimate the impact of wetland amenities on nearby single family homes using actual sales prices of properties from 1991 to 2005 in Chatham County, Georgia, where wetland resources are unevenly distributed in terms of types and quantities of wetlands. Separate hedonic models are investigated to understand the spatial variation of wetland amenity effects across different study areas in Chatham County. This study finds that wetland amenity values vary mainly with the characteristics of study location. In a rural setting where wetland resources are ample and sufficient. Wetland amenities have negative impacts on the sales price of nearby single family homes. Forested wetlands, the size of the nearest wetland, and wetland proximity negatively impact the sales price of the properties. In an urban setting where wetland resources are extremely limited, wetlands have significant positive amenity effects. The size of the nearest wetland positively impact the sales price of nearby single family homes, but type of wetlands turns into insignificant. In a suburban area with diverse wetland recourses in term of types of wetlands, mixed amenity effects are found. In general immediate access to a wetland, especially a large size one, positively impact nearby single family homes. Type of wetlands plays a key role in deciding the direction and magnitude of wetland amenity effects in a suburban area. The findings of the study suggest that policy makers need to think about both the characteristics of wetlands and their spatial context when providing or protecting wetland amenities.

No description available.

Many of the benefits that are generated by the natural environment are external to normal market transactions and are consequently undervalued and under-provisioned even though they substantially contribute to human welfare. One approach to valuing certain environmental goods and services is through a regression technique known as the property hedonic model. This model considers a property as a bundle of attributes where the total price of the property is decomposed into marginal, implicit prices for property-specific attributes, the context or neighborhood in which a property resides and access to environmental amenities. The goal of this dissertation research is to estimate the value of proximity to the environmental amenities of parks and open spaces using a property hedonic model for the City of Baltimore and suburban areas of Baltimore County. While the property hedonic model has been commonly used to value environmental benefits, few of these studies have distinguished the spatial scales of neighborhood characteristics from the property-specific characteristics within a regression model. In this research, a multilevel modeling approach to the typical property hedonic model was used to model the effects of attributes at different spatial scales. This approach also allowed the effect of environmental attributes to vary across geographic space and interact with attributes across spatial scales. Such methods provide a more realistic accounting of the dynamic spatial variation of the value of environmental goods and services. For parks in the City of Baltimore, the results of valuing proximity to parks showed a spatial dynamic not often captured in property hedonics. The overall fixed effect for distance to park was negative but insignificant. When allowed to vary by block group, the random effect for this variable indicated that only two-thirds of the 401 neighborhoods positively valued increased proximity to parks. No interactions were found to be significant for the entire study. However, for the population of block groups whose properties did positively value proximity to parks, the results of interactions with neighborhood and park characteristics showed that smaller and more open parks were valued higher than larger and more wooded parks. A high population density also increased the value for a property in close proximity to a park. Finally, properties with smaller yards placed a higher value on proximity to parks than those properties with larger yards, indicating a substitution effect. For open space in Baltimore County, the results indicated that while higher proportions of privately-owned open space surrounding a property increased the value of that property, open space that was publicly-accessible was not significantly valued. Privately-owned open space that was potentially developable was less than half the value of the positive effect of private, open space under conservation easements or other development restrictions.

Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / Mykel Taylor / Because Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts take land out of production for at least ten years, when deciding to enroll a parcel of land, a landowner must weigh the opportunity costs of hindering production flexibility against a guaranteed constant annual return. This thesis discusses whether having a CRP contract on a parcel of land in any way effects the value of that parcel. This is accomplished through the use of a hedonic model using data from 1998-2014 on Kansas agricultural land transactions. Results show that unlike in previous literature, while the effect of CRP is typically negative, it can become positive depending on the state of market factors at the time of the transaction.

<p>På dagens marknad råder hård konkurrens om konsumenterna. För att företag ska lyckas med att</p><p>vinna marknadsdelar och tillfredställa oss med rätta produkter och image, gäller det att gå på</p><p>djupet och undersöka oss konsumenter och varför vi egentligen shoppar.</p><p>Nivån av njutning och tillfredställelse vid shopping skiljer sig åt mellan konsumenter. Den</p><p>shopping som inte är nödvändig för att vi ska kunna fungera i vardagen, som används för att öka</p><p>livskvalité och njutning, kallas hedonic shopping. Vid den hedonistiska aspekten av shopping</p><p>blir konsumenten motiverad av den emotionella och underhållande dimensionen associerat med</p><p>inköpen. Den utilitariana shopparen, å andra sidan, handlar varor målmedvetet och effektivt och</p><p>påverkas därmed inte av den underhållande delen på samma sätt (Babin, Darden & Griffin,</p><p>1994).</p><p>För att kunna kategorisera och djupare förstå den hedonistiska aspekten av shopping har sex</p><p>kategorier utvecklats: adventure shopping, social shopping, gratification shopping, idea</p><p>shopping, role shopping och value shopping. (Arnold & Reynolds, 2003). Kategorierna kommer</p><p>att beröras och utvecklas närmare genom uppsatsens gång och ligger till grund för uppsatsens</p><p>insamlade empiri och analys.</p><p>Tidigare forskning som gjorts kring ämnet shopping har undersökt vilka som konsumerar vad och</p><p>varför konsumenter shoppar. Forskare som undersökt varför konsumenter shoppar har fokuserat</p><p>och bland annat försökt ge svar på hur miljön man handlar i, som butikens utformning, påverkar</p><p>konsumenters val vid shopping. Vad som fokuserats lite kring är hur hedonic shopping kan</p><p>påverkas av andra faktorer som nationalitet och kultur (Millan et al, 2007).</p>

På dagens marknad råder hård konkurrens om konsumenterna. För att företag ska lyckas med att vinna marknadsdelar och tillfredställa oss med rätta produkter och image, gäller det att gå på djupet och undersöka oss konsumenter och varför vi egentligen shoppar. Nivån av njutning och tillfredställelse vid shopping skiljer sig åt mellan konsumenter. Den shopping som inte är nödvändig för att vi ska kunna fungera i vardagen, som används för att öka livskvalité och njutning, kallas hedonic shopping. Vid den hedonistiska aspekten av shopping blir konsumenten motiverad av den emotionella och underhållande dimensionen associerat med inköpen. Den utilitariana shopparen, å andra sidan, handlar varor målmedvetet och effektivt och påverkas därmed inte av den underhållande delen på samma sätt (Babin, Darden & Griffin, 1994). För att kunna kategorisera och djupare förstå den hedonistiska aspekten av shopping har sex kategorier utvecklats: adventure shopping, social shopping, gratification shopping, idea shopping, role shopping och value shopping. (Arnold & Reynolds, 2003). Kategorierna kommer att beröras och utvecklas närmare genom uppsatsens gång och ligger till grund för uppsatsens insamlade empiri och analys. Tidigare forskning som gjorts kring ämnet shopping har undersökt vilka som konsumerar vad och varför konsumenter shoppar. Forskare som undersökt varför konsumenter shoppar har fokuserat och bland annat försökt ge svar på hur miljön man handlar i, som butikens utformning, påverkar konsumenters val vid shopping. Vad som fokuserats lite kring är hur hedonic shopping kan påverkas av andra faktorer som nationalitet och kultur (Millan et al, 2007).

Different open space types are assumed to be valued in different ways by the public. This thesis analyzes four spatially explicit hedonic models of Baltimore County, Maryland to examine the effect of six different open spaces types on house value using 2007 sales data. The first model analyzes open space value using proximity measures of open spaces, while the other three models use percent area measures of open space at different neighborhood distance. Marginal monetary values of the open spaces are estimated. Additional eight hedonic models, four urban and four rural, are used to analyze the differences and similarities between the value placed on open space by urban dwellers and rural dwellers. Among the open space types under study, storm water retention area is found to have the most prevalent influence on house value and in most instants this influence is found to be negative. Differences and similarities in urban and rural perspective on open space value are also discussed. Proximity to lakes without improvements has positive effect on house prices for both rural and urban area. Golf course area in urban neighborhood has negative influence on house prices, whereas in rural area its influence is seen to be positive.

As swedes are keen on outdoor recreation and like to spend on travels and gear for forest recreation we want to show if there is a willingness to pay for forest recreation close to home. Starting in hedonic regression we create a model using publicly available data to show how consumer preferences effect house prices. Results show that distance to forest have a small but significant impact on house prices. To conclude we state that a logarithmic model using open source data can be useful in city planning and that there is a positive effect of nearby forests on house prices.

Master of Science / Food Science Institute - Food, Nutrition, Dietetics and Health / Edgar Chambers IV / Sensory perception and hedonic response to foods and beverages depend not only on the characteristics of the food or beverage product, but also on the physiological and psychological state of the person consuming it. Physical exercise provokes physiological changes in human subjects including dehydration through sweat loss and depletion of energy stores, and emotional changes including increased fatigue and vigor; as such it is expected to affect the sensory and hedonic response to foods consumed immediately post-workout. Exercise and proper diet are both well-recognized components of a healthy lifestyle; it is therefore critical to understand how an acute bout of exercise or a chronic training regimen might affect the eating behavior of the exerciser. This review examines published studies -- both interventional and observational -- on the effect of acute and chronic physical exercise on thirst, hunger, perception and liking of the five basic tastes, and macronutrient choice. This review also touches on macronutrient choice and psychological factors of food choice such as compensatory eating and food restraint. Results suggest that acute exercise of a certain threshold intensity effects consistent perceptual and hedonic changes across the population: immediate hunger suppression, osmoregulatory thirst, increased palatability of salt, increased perception and palatability of sweetness, and decreased perception and palatability of sourness. Effects on bitter and umami appear more limited. However, individual metabolic and psychological variation modulate these effects, and the effects of chronic exercise are complicated by concurrent lifestyle changes and not properly understood through observational studies alone.

Land is a composite good, the price of which varies with its characteristics, including proximity to amenities. Analysis of data from sales of land near Green Mountain National Forest wilderness areas in a hedonic price model reveals a positive relationship between proximity to protected wilderness and market values for residential properties. The applications of this result include improved consideration of the positive economic impacts of land conservation in political deliberations over public land management and new mechanisms for financing land conservation, local planning and development efforts, and maintenance of affordable housing in high-amenity/high-cost areas. / Ph. D.