Econometric analyses of nonindustrial forest landowners: Is there anything left to study?

Abstract

In this paper we review recent econometric studies focusing on how nonindustrial private forest landowners make decisions. We use our synthesis of previous work and a discussion of emerging problems involving these landowners as motivation for future research. The majority of research undertaken prior to the late 1980's involved determining variables affecting reforestation or harvesting decisions. In the past decade, researchers have studied a broader set of issues, including the interrelationship between nontimber activities and other important decisions, such as bequests, examination of how landowner type and preferences affects decision making, and incorporation of landowner level responses into spatial landscape models. Using these trends as motivation, we end by proposing several new research directions. These include characterizing landowner reservation prices for various activities as a way of assessing market participation, evaluating the importance of adjacent landowners to a given landowner's behavior, investigating the substitution between various types of land use decisions, continuing to integrate landowner-level data into spatial landscape models, and broadening our understanding of institutional arrangements and landowner willingness to enter evaluating informational asymmetries, into such arrangements.