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on Tourism Economics |
| By: | Sandra Notaro; Alessandro Paletto; Roberta Raffaelli |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to take stock of the situation regarding the main types of damage to forests and their respective economic consequences, with reference to a case study in the Italian Alps (Trentino province). Each kind of damage (wind and snow, defoliation, fire and tillage) has been analysed in terms of its impact on four forest functions (production, protection, tourism-recreation and carbon sequestration) and evaluated in monetary terms. Market value was used to estimate the production and carbon sequestration functions, replacement cost method for protection, and contingent valuation for tourism-recreation. Applying desk research on damage caused by the main biotic and abiotic factors to this particular case study led to estimate a annual damage of about € 1,633,595 equal to € 4.73 per hectar. This can be considered a lower bound estimate of possibly greater damage. Another interesting result emerged from the evaluation exercise is that the wealth of information produced through monitoring and scientific research in the last twenty years does not readily lend itself to economic analysis. |
| Keywords: | forest damage, forest functions, interaction between damage and functions, economic valuation, Alpine forests |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trn:utwpde:0809&r=tur |
| By: | Paolo Rosato (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei); Lucia Rotaris (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and Università di Trieste); Margaretha Breil (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei); Valentina Zanatta (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei) |
| Abstract: | Italian historical buildings require urgent and costly maintenance and restoration works, but neither the local, nor the national public administrators can afford these expenditures. Nevertheless the built cultural heritage represent a unique resource of the territory, as it embodies the local social, historical, and cultural values, generates positive externalities (Musgrave, 1959), and stimulates economic activities mainly related to tourism. Is it possible to quantify how much we care about historical buildings and to measure this value in monetary terms? The aim of this paper is to answer to this question via the hedonimetric approach. Specifically, we try to verify if the proximity to historical villas, districts, palaces, squares, fortresses, religious buildings and archeological site systematically influence the house market equilibrium price in the Veneto region (Italy). The paper is organized as follows: in section two a brief review of the literature is reported, in section three the database used for the hedonimetric estimates is described, in section four the econometric models and the results we had obtained are illustrated, and in section five some final comments are drawn. |
| Keywords: | Cultural Heritage Externalities, Hedonic Housing Price Method |
| JEL: | Z1 D62 Q51 |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2008.64&r=tur |
| By: | Elisabetta Strazzera (University of Cagliari); Elisabetta Cherchi (DIT and CIREM, University of Cagliari); Silvia Ferrini (DEPFID, University of Siena, CSERGE and University of East Anglia) |
| Abstract: | This study adopts a discrete choice modelling methodology to evaluate individuals’ preferences over planning alternatives for an urban site of environmental interest. Since such projects involve some uncertainty and irreversibility, a special attention is devoted to the estimation of the quasi-option values which are associated to project development. Two distinct measures for the quasi-option value are estimated, and both coefficients indicate that the public places a significant value on reduction of the possibility of adverse irreversible effects: a more prudent development strategy is valued about four times more than a procedure that provides a lesser hedge against undesired outcomes. Furthermore, the study involved elicitation of intertemporal preferences over projects with different time spans, and estimation of the implicit discount rates: the values obtained seem high if compared to standard discount rates applied to public projects, but not far from current interest rates on consumption. |
| Keywords: | Urban Planning, Environmental Values, Choice Modelling, Use Values, Quasi-option Values, Discounting |
| JEL: | C35 Q51 R41 |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2008.63&r=tur |