Economic Valuation of Forest Resources Using Voluntary Labor Contribution : An Application of a Generalized Corner Solution Model

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21730210
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Applied economics
Research Institution	Ritsumeikan University
Principal Investigator	TERAWAKI Taku Ritsumeikan University, 経済学部, 准教授 (90330018)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2010
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2010)
Budget Amount *help	¥2,210,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥510,000) Fiscal Year 2010: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000) Fiscal Year 2009: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000)
Keywords	環境評価 / 顕示選好 / ボランティア労働供給 / 森林資源 / 非利用価値
Research Abstract	The study aims to develop a new valuation technique that enables us to measure the values of forest ecosystems with the revealed preference data, by applying a generalized corner solution model to the labor supply behavior of forest volunteers. The empirical results of this approach showed that the values of forest ecosystems are much larger than those estimated by previous stated preference studies. These facts suggest that the values in the past studies were not the ones that represent the equivalent variation in the case when the reference level indicates the state of the forest being completely exploited.