Publication

Hedonic estimation of nonindustrial private forest landowner amenity values

Lee, K. J.

Research into nonindustrial private forest management behavior has often focused on the relationship between harvesting decisions and characteristics of the landowner. In addition to landowner differences, however, private forest management is affected b different levels of amenities present in individual forest stands. This relationship between forest amenity characteristics and private forest harvest and timber supply has not been well established. This paper tests the hypothesis that private forest landowners consider on-site forest characteristics as amenity values in their harvesting decisions. Landowners who value amenities may harvest beyond the optimal financial rotation age, thus incurring opportunity costs. Using a modified hedonic method, a regression of opportunity costs on the forest amenity characteristics provides estimates of the marginal value of these amenities. Because the decision to harvest is influenced by the amenity values present on the site, nonindustrial harvesters are a self-selected sample and econometric techniques were used to minimize bias in the coefficient estimates.