Can We Measure the Economic Value of Environmental Amenities?

Abstract

When I began thinking about a subject for this address, I realized that the Southern Economic Association was one of my first sources for substantive professional interaction. It has been a continuing source of education for me, both through constructive comments on my own research papers and insights from the work presented here by others. Because of this, I found the task of selecting a topic and preparing an essay somewhat daunting. In the face of what seemed to me an especially difficult assignment, I naturally looked to what past SEA Presidents have said for insight. Four essays in particular influenced my selection. Edgar Browning's address last year demonstrated how a presidential essay could consider an important national policy issue, combine relevant theory and empirical information, and provide fresh insights into how policy should be recast to deal with the problem posed [8]. Of equal influence, the essay by my former colleague Bob Gallman a decade ago reminded me that a presidential essay gives its author an opportunity to report to the profession at large on the latest developments in his (or her) own subdiscipline [21]. The introduction to Gordon Tullock's essay reminded me that this address also offers an opportunity to advance ideas that might be controversial or incompletely substantiated based on the conventional criteria applied by most journal referees [57]. Finally, Bob Tollison's essay stimulated my interest in the source of each economist's ideas and in how the process of doing our research might be subjected to more formal economic analysis [56]. To fully understand the source of an economist's research, we don't want to be captured by either extreme: the view that historical circumstances explain the development of economic ideas or that they result from a purely trial-and-error process. To avoid these extremes, we need to consider how each of us spends our time. Because of Tollison's work, I decided to break with the past scholarly tradition of these sessions and show some slides from the family album. In particular, I want to tell you about my summer vacation. I went to the West and saw the Grand Canyon. Many regard the vista seen from the North Rim as one of the most spectacular in the world. Following that experience, I