Recreation Benefits of U.S. Parks
$55 billion annually according to Pamela Kaval (whom I'd never heard of ;->) in her recent working paper. Here is the abstract:
Over 90 percent of people living in the United States participate in some type of outdoor recreation, from walking the dog to rock climbing. These activities increase a person’s well-being and are examples of recreation benefits. These benefits can be measured by using a variety of available techniques to calculate consumer surplus values. Consumer surplus values for recreation in U.S. parks were collated from an extensive literature review. Studies conducted between 1967 and 2003 yielded over 1,200 observations of non-market benefits. From this meta-analysis, it was determined that an average day of recreation in U.S. parks provide people with a non-market benefit of $60.50/day (2006 US$). With an estimated 924 million visitor days, the benefit of outdoor recreation on federal park lands during 2006 was estimated at $54.7 billion dollars. This analysis did not include state, county, and city parks, and hence the total benefit of outdoor recreation in all U.S. parks would be significantly higher.
Convincing me playing frizbie is fun and even valuable is easy...now show me why it is more efficient for the state to pay for it rather then the market.
Is there even a remote chance that this paper with have a rational for socializing recreation costs?
Posted by: joshua corning | July 19, 2007 at 06:37 PM
But you have heard of me now. ;-)
Posted by: Pamela Kaval | August 01, 2007 at 12:27 PM
Pamela,
I hope you got the "whom I'd never heard of" joke!
Posted by: John Whitehead | August 01, 2007 at 12:54 PM
Yes, no worries.
Posted by: Pamela Kaval | August 01, 2007 at 07:06 PM
Can you direct me to where I can find data of numbers of recreational ground visitors categorized by year and name of state park.
Posted by: Joana | February 06, 2008 at 02:01 PM