Local consequences of national policies - A spatial analysis of preferences for forest access reduction

Stated preference studies eliciting welfare economic consequence of national policies, are often not considering the spatial variation in supply and demand. This spatial variation may however cause large distributional heterogeneity of policy changes. In this study, we use a choice experiment to tes...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Forest policy and economics 2016-12, Vol.73, p.68-77
Main Authors: Nielsen, Anne Sofie Elberg, Lundhede, Thomas Hedemark, Jacobsen, Jette Bredahl
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Choice experiment
Data quality
Ecosystems
Forestry economics
Forests
Geographic information systems
Heterogeneity
Policies
Preference heterogeneity
Preferences
Recreation
Residence
Respondents
Self-selection
Spatial analysis
Spatial heterogeneity
Supply & demand
Wildlife
WTP
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Summary:Stated preference studies eliciting welfare economic consequence of national policies, are often not considering the spatial variation in supply and demand. This spatial variation may however cause large distributional heterogeneity of policy changes. In this study, we use a choice experiment to test whether peoples' preferences for restrictions in forest access is influenced by spatial heterogeneity in local forest presence and quality conditions. Combining survey data with GIS information we assess the size of local forest cover, distance to nearest forest and forest quality indicators in a radius of 2.5km from respondent's residence. We demonstrate that a nationally framed policy implementing access reductions to protect wildlife may have heterogeneous welfare consequences which can be described by a general disutility for access reductions and dependency on local forest attributes. Further, geo referencing the residence of all invited respondents allows us to test whether forest cover, distance and other forest attributes are different between respondents and non-respondents. No evidence of self-selection is identified. •We test the influence on local forest conditions for people's preferences for access reductions.•We merge results from a stated preference study with GIS layers of forest conditions.•We find that respondents' surroundings influence their WTP.•There is a large heterogeneity not explained by local surroundings.
ISSN:1389-9341
1872-7050
DOI:10.1016/j.forpol.2016.08.010