Measuring the Value of U.S. National Parks Using Hedonic Property Value Models

Abstract

The National Park Service is expected to calculate the economic benefits of national parks for use when evaluating policy and management options of the parks (Loomis 2002). We estimated the marginal willingness to pay to live close to a national park that is capitalized into house prices for 18 national parks and found that estimated effects can be significant and are heterogeneous across different types of parks. However, these effects can also be attributed to other factors in the housing market, which brings the significance of these estimated impacts into question. (JEL Q51)