Preferences For Amenities Research Articles

Do natural amenities influence undergraduate student migration decisions?

The primary objective of this paper is to examine the influence of natural amenities on student migration decisions using institution-level data from the National Center for Education Statistics’ Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. We surpass the scope of previous studies focused on natural amenities, which rely on a limited selection of state-level measures, by matching interpolated weather station- and county-level climate data to each post-secondary institution. Results suggest that students consider natural amenities in their migration to college decision and, in a number of cases, preferences for natural amenities vary based on origin state amenity conditions. Nonetheless, migration decisions are dominated by origin state educational opportunities and by proximity of the student’s origin state to the state of college attendance.

The Effect of Business Cycle Fluctuations on Migration Decisions

I examine mechanisms that differentially influence migration behavior in response to labor market shocks between employed and unemployed workers in the US. Over the period of the Great Recession, overall migration rates in the US remained close to their respective long-term trends. However, migration evolved differently by employment status with unemployed workers being more likely to migrate during the recession and employed workers less likely. I estimate a dynamic non-stationary search model of migration, focusing on the role of employment frictions, earnings, and amenities on migration decisions. My results show that employed workers are faced with a large job queuing penalty when moving locations, which results in differing migration incentives for the two groups when faced with adverse labor market shocks. I also find that migration rates were muted because of the national scope of the Great Recession. I show that moving subsidies aimed at mitigating local unemployment are greatly hindered by workers' preferences for amenities.

More Inclusive Parks Planning: Park Quality and Preferences for Park Access and Amenities

Abstract Parks are increasingly viewed as places that prompt environmental justice analysis. While these studies have focused on inequalities in access to parks and amenities within parks, we offer a third important topic of study: the opinions and preferences of minorities with regards to park usage. We link empirical environmental justice analysis on parks with the core environmental justice belief that marginalized communities must have a voice in planning processes. Using data from two surveys conducted in Houston, Texas, we analyze the park preferences of these communities. Results show that park users in majority-minority neighborhoods primarily wish to see better park amenities, such as more and revitalized infrastructure, enhanced maintenance, and a safer environment, but are less concerned with increasing or improving connections between parks and neighborhoods. Further, the limited support for improved access to parks is contingent on park quality such that higher quality parks are associated wi...

Resident perceptions of natural resources between cities and across scales in the Pacific Northwest

As the global population becomes increasingly urban, research is needed to explore how local culture, land use, and policy will influence urban natural resource management. We used a broad-scale comparative approach and survey of residents within the Portland (Oregon)-Vancouver (Washington) metropolitan areas, USA, two states with similar geographical and ecological characteristics, but different approaches to land-use planning, to explore resident perceptions about natural resources at three scales of analysis: property level (at or near my house), neighborhood (within a 20-minute walk from my house), and metro level (across the metro area). At the metro-level scale, nonmetric multidimensional scaling revealed that the two cities were quite similar. However, affinity for particular landscape characteristics existed within each city with the greatest difference generally at the property-level scale. Portland respondents expressed affinity for large mature trees, tree-lined streets, public transportation, and proximity to stores and services. Vancouver respondents expressed affinity for plentiful accessible parking. We suggest three explanations that likely are not mutually exclusive. First, respondents are segmented based on preferences for particular amenities, such as convenience versus commuter needs. Second, historical land-use and tax policy legacies may influence individual decisions. Third, more environmentally attuned worldviews may influence an individual's desire to produce environmentally friendly outcomes. Our findings highlight the importance of acknowledging variations in residents' affinities for landscape characteristics across different scales and locations because these differences may influence future land-use policies about urban natural resources.

Acute effects of exposure to a traditional rural environment on urban dwellers: a crossover field study in terraced farmland.

Despite an increasing attention and public preference for rural amenities, little evidence is available on the health benefits of a rural environment. In this study, we identified physiological and psychological benefits of exposure to a rural environment using multiparametric methods. Twelve young male adults participated in a 3-day field experiment (mean ± standard deviation age, 22.3 ± 1.3 years). Sleeping environment, diet program, physical activities, and other factors possibly affecting physiological responses were controlled during experiment period. For all participants, salivary cortisol concentration, heart rate variability, and blood pressure were measured at rural and urban field sites. Self-evaluation questionnaires were administered to analyze the psychological states in two different environments. Volatile compounds in the air were also analyzed to investigate air quality. The data were compared between rural and urban environments. The data showed that exposure to a rural environment reduced stress hormone secretion and sympathetic nervous activity and increased parasympathetic nervous activity. Short-term exposure to a rural environment also improved mood states. Our findings indicate that exposure to a rural environment effectively reduced physiological stress and enhanced psychological well-being.

Human Capital and Labor Informality in Chile: A Life-Cycle Approach

Labor informality accounts for nearly 40% of the labor force in Latin America. While a more traditional view sees this phenomenon as a consequence of barriers to mobility resulting from poorly designed labor regulations, recent work provides evidence that individuals choose informal jobs based on their comparative advantage. In this paper, I develop a dynamic life-cycle model estimated with rich Chilean longitudinal data, in which individuals jointly decide on their schooling and labor participation, to investigate the extent to which comparative advantage drives participation in informal labor markets. I find that human capital accumulation and preferences for job amenities explain up to 72% of transitions between the informal and the formal sector while labor market segmentation accounts for 28%. These barriers to mobility are decreasing in education. These results are largely driven by heterogeneous preferences and returns to skills across sectors. For example, more educated individuals assign a higher relative importance to non-wage benefits, particularly in formal jobs, while less educated individuals value more monetary rewards; high ability workers are more productive in the formal sector, while low ability workers are more productive in the informal sector; and unlike labor market experience acquired in informal activities, experience acquired in formal jobs is transferable across sectors. Finally, using the model to simulate the effects of a 20% wage subsidy in formal jobs for young workers, I find that individuals react to labor market expectations and their decisions are persistent. The subsidy would decrease the incentives to informality for both targeted groups and younger workers, while the reduction in informality rates as a consequence of the policy would remain persistent for all the life-cycle.

Market Impacts on Land-Use Change: An Agent-Based Experiment

Land-use change in a market economy, particularly at the urban–rural fringe in North America, is shaped through land and housing markets. Although market activities are at the core of economic studies of land-use change, many market elements are neglected by coupled human–environment models. We scrutinized the effects of the level of detail of market representation using an abstract, agent-based model of land-use change. This model includes agents representing land buyers and sellers and their respective market-based decision-making behaviors. Our results show that although incorporating key market elements, particularly budget constraints and competitive bidding, in land-use models generally alters projected land-use patterns, their impacts differ significantly depending on the level of detail of market representation. Consistent with theories of land change, our research confirms that budget constraints can considerably reduce the projected quantity of land-use change. The effects of competitive bidding, however, are more complex and depend on buyers’ budgets, their relative preferences for proximity versus open-space amenities, and the size of neighborhoods. Market competition might reduce or increase the quantity of land-use change and the degree of sprawl in the simulated landscapes. Because of the strong effects of market elements on resulting patterns, adequate representation of the structure of markets is important for capturing and characterizing the complexity inherent in coupled human–environment systems.

Changing landowners, changing ecosystem? Land-ownership motivations as drivers of land management practices

Motivations for owning rural land are shifting from an agricultural-production orientation to a preference for natural and cultural amenities. Resultant changes in land management have significant implications for the type and distribution of landscape-level disturbances that affect the delivery of ecosystem services. We examined the relationship between motivations for owning land and the implementation of conservation land management practices by landowners in the Southern Great Plains of the United States. Using a mail survey, we classified landowners into three groups: agricultural production, multiple-objective, and lifestyle-oriented. Cross tabulations of landowner group with past, current, and future use of 12 different land management practices (related to prescribed grazing, vegetation management, restoration, and water management) found that lifestyle-oriented landowners were overall less likely to adopt these practices. To the degree that the cultural landscape of rural lands transitions from production-oriented to lifestyle-oriented landowners, the ecological landscape and the associated flow of ecosystem services will likely change. This poses new challenges to natural resource managers regarding education, outreach, and policy; however, a better understanding about the net ecological consequences of lower rates of adoption of conservation management practices requires consideration of the ecological tradeoffs associated with the changing resource dependency of rural landowners.

Risk Management Behavior of a Forest Owner to Address Growth Risk

We analyze risk management behavior (financial savings versus physical savings) of a private forest owner who values amenities in relation to uncertainty about timber growth. In a two-period model, we study the properties of optimal current and future harvesting and risk management decisions. We show that the forest owner chooses the tool with the highest rate of return unless both risk management instruments are perfect substitutes. We prove that future harvesting is greater under physical savings than under financial savings. Comparative static results on amenity preferences, incomes, forest stocks, timber prices, and opportunity costs are investigated.

Combining Revealed and Stated Preference Data to Estimate Preferences for Residential Amenities: A GMM Approach

We show how stated preference information obtained from a choice experiment, and revealed preference information based on housing market transactions, can be combined via generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation. Specifically, we use a moment condition matching the predicted marginal willingness to pay (WTP) from a first-stage hedonic model to the marginal WTP formula implied by the choice experiment utility function. This is coupled with other moments from the choice experiment to produce GMM-based estimates of parameters that reflect the strengths of each data source. Our application values remediation of a contaminated site in Buffalo, New York, and we find evidence in support of estimates arising from our approach. <i>(JEL Q51, Q53)</i>

Compensating differentials, labor market segmentation, and wage inequality

Two literatures on work and the labor market draw attention to the importance of non-pecuniary job amenities. Social psychological perspectives on work suggest that workers have preferences for a range of job amenities (e.g. Halaby, 2003). The compensating differentials hypothesis predicts that workers navigate tradeoffs among different job amenities such that wage inequality overstates inequality in utility (Smith, 1979). This paper joins these perspectives by constructing a new measure of labor market success that evaluates the degree to which workers’ job amenity preferences and outcomes match. This measure of subjective success is used to predict workers’ job satisfaction and to test the hypothesis that some degree of labor force inequality in wages is due to preference-based tradeoffs among all job amenities. Findings demonstrate that the new measure predicts workers’ job satisfaction and provides evidence for the presence of compensating differentials in the primary and intermediate, but not secondary, labor markets.

Residential preferences of the ‘creative class’?

The desire for ‘vibrant’, ‘bohemian’ neighbourhoods forms a focal point of the amenity preferences of Richard Florida’s ‘creative class’ thesis. Here, a vibrant street culture, which includes cafes and restaurants spilling onto the pavement, is implied as being of key importance in the selection of a residential area for creative and knowledge workers. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, this paper examines the residential preferences of the ‘creative class’ in Dublin, Ireland. The results illustrate the continued importance of classic factors in residential decision-making, including housing cost, accessibility and travel-time to place of employment. Moreover, the results also illustrate how changes in the life-cycle, including the decision to have a family, have a direct influence on residential location choice. While there is a tendency for younger workers to select the city centre, older workers predominantly opt to live in suburban areas with good transport connections to the city centre or their place of employment.

Migration in Germany

This article investigates migration in postunification Germany, focusing on three particular issues: Do Germans migrate to improve their net wages or for higher levels of amenities? Is migration behavior in East Germany the same as for unified Germany? And finally, is there a difference between age groups in terms of migration? In addition, the authors will control for spatial dependence in the migration model. The authors show that Germany has both equilibrium model and disequilibrium model aspects. The authors also find that migration behavior depends on both different stages in the life cycle and the location. Younger people value amenities higher, while middle-aged people and East Germans prefer regions with low unemployment. Surprisingly, retirees do not have a preference for amenities unless they are from East Germany.

POPULATION DISPERSION VS. CONCENTRATION IN A TWO‐REGION MIGRATION MODEL WITH ENDOGENOUS NATURAL AMENITIES*

ABSTRACT Contrary to the predictions of the basic spatial equilibrium model, the long‐run distribution of population across rural U.S. counties with high‐valued natural amenities has become relatively more concentrated versus dispersed. We provide an explanation by developing a two‐region model with mobile labor, production externalities and endogenous natural amenities. We find that strong preferences for natural amenities generally foster population dispersion. However, such preferences can also lead to population concentration when ecological degradation is low and man‐made capital is a relatively scarce input into natural amenity production. Investments that enhance natural amenities are found to reduce the divergence between the steady state and optimal outcomes.

Linking Regional Science and Urban Economics: Long-Run Interactions among Preferences for Amenities and Public Goods

The linked nature of long-term patterns of urban deconcentration and regional change (from rustbelt to sunbelt) is analyzed in a framework that emphasizes heterogeneous human preferences. The focus is on the important interactions that exist between local and regional amenities, whether exogenous or endogenous. The central thesis is that persistent exogenous amenity variation among regions provides an underlying pattern of regional growth and decline. However, inappropriate provision of local public goods in central cities is seen to lead both to non-optimally large levels of suburbanization and to rates of regional change that are also non-optimally large.

Effects of taxes and climate policy instruments on harvesting of managed forests and on tropical deforestation

This dissertation examines the effects of taxes and policy instruments that aim to regulate climate services from forests. It consists of a summary section and four articles. Articles (I) and (II) examine the effects of taxes on management decisions in the context of managed boreal forests distinguished by forest-owners’ amenity preferences and also their age. Articles (III) and (IV) examine the role of carbon-based policy instruments in the presence of taxes on land incomes in curbing tropical deforestation. Article (I) reveals that the intensity of forest-owners’ preferences for forest amenities affects the non-neutrality of forest taxes pertaining to forest harvesting. Therefore, the effects of taxes depend on this intensity. This highlights the importance of developing methods to measure forest-owners’ amenity preferences quantitatively. Article (II) shows that the age of forest-owners governs their propensity to consume as opposed to leave bequests. Furthermore, it shown that the effects of capital income and inheritance taxes vary across different age-groups of forest-owners. Article (III) demonstrates that taxes on forestry and cash-crop incomes, per se, may be ineffective in curbing tropical forest loss. The carbon payments may complement these taxes, and an effective policy to combat tropical deforestation should jointly target forestry and cash-crop sectors. Article (IV) demonstrates the link between carbon compensation policies and land income taxation. An optimal carbon compensation scheme may require that national governments are allowed to use different compensation rates from that applied globally when passing national level compensations on to the local level. These results suggest that existing policies such as taxation should be accounted for in the analysis and design of international carbon policy instruments that aim at enhancing forests’ role in climate change mitigation.

Impacts of In‐Migration and Coastal Amenities on Housing Growth in Coastal North Carolina, United States

ABSTRACTMigrant preferences for environmental amenities contribute to demand for new housing and associated land use/cover change. Coastal North Carolina has emerged as an important migration destination that is being ‘discovered’ by in‐migrants who may attracted in part by coastal amenities. Investigations of linkages between population and land change are part of a population–environment research paradigm requiring integration of social, natural, environmental, and geographical information science. We contribute to the population–environment literature by addressing two main questions: (1) what factors drive housing growth in an amenity rich coastal region in North Carolina? and (2) how does housing behaviour differ between categories of migrant and non‐migrant households? Regression results revealed in‐migration, prior housing density, and tourism presence to have the largest effects on new housing growth. Ocean proximity failed to act as an environmental amenity attracting growth; however, we found evidence suggesting that the interior estuarine region may act as an outlet for development pressure. Later‐life migration was revealed to be particularly important with later life in‐migrants being more likely to (a) reside in new homes; (b) reside in single family detached homes; (c) be home owners; (d) own homes with greater property values; and (e) have greater household incomes. Themes of our findings for a relatively small region share commonalities with processes occurring in larger scale amenity–migrant regions such as the US Mountain West yet suggest the possibility of other localised growth regions that collectively might contribute significantly to processes of population and land use change. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Social Carrying Capacity in Beach Management in Barbados

ABSTRACT CUMBERBATCH, J and MOSES, J., 2011. Social Carrying Capacity in Beach Management in Barbados. In: Micallef, A. (ed.), MCRR3–2010 Conference Proceedings, Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue, No. 61, pp. 14–23. Grosseto, Tuscany, Italy, ISSN 0749–0208. This research investigated Social Carrying Capacity (SCC) in the context of beach management in Barbados. The research contributed to evidence-based decision making by providing data that can inform the enhancement of the beach management plan of the Government of Barbados. Data were gathered from locals and tourists visiting several beaches over a four year period, 2005 – 2009. Questionnaires were used to collect data on variables including: demographics, beach choice and use preferences, beach accessibility, beach amenities and activities, and perceptions of crowding. Findings indicated that there were distinct demographic use patterns with respect to time of use, activities and amenity preferences. It was found that while the existing beach...

Estimating the Determinants of Population Location in Auckland

This paper analyses the location choices of new entrants to Auckland between 1996 and 2006, to identify a systematic relationship between residential location choices and features of local areas such as population density, the population composition of the area or its neighbourhood, accessibility to different types of amenities, paying particular attention to the influence of land prices. For the analysis, the Auckland Urban Area is divided into around 9,000 small areas (“meshblocks”). Location choices are analysed using count data methods applied to microdata from the Census of Population and Dwellings. The results emphasise the importance of own-group attraction. Groups of entrants classified by qualification, income, ethnicity, or country of birth are all attracted to meshblocks or neighbourhoods where their group already has a strong presence. The evidence demonstrates that this sorting reflects attraction to fellow group members, rather than being due to group members having common preferences for local amenities.

Erratum to: Effects of forest taxation and amenity preferences on nonindustrial private forest owners

Erratum to: Effects of forest taxation and amenity preferences on nonindustrial private forest owners