Process / pipelineEnvironmental and Resource Economics
Travel Cost Method
The Travel Cost Method (TCM), developed by Harold Hotelling in 1949 and formalized by Marion Clawson and Jack Knetsch in the 1960s, is an econometric approach for valuing recreational sites and environmental amenities by inferring value from the travel costs (transportation, time, entry fees) that people incur to visit them. The core principle is that distance traveled and travel costs reveal how much people value a recreation site: those traveling far incur high costs, implying high value.
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Sources
- Hotelling, H. (1949). An Economic Study of the Monetary Valuation of Recreation in the National Parks. U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service. link ↗
- Clawson, M., & Knetsch, J. L. (1966). Economics of Outdoor Recreation. Johns Hopkins Press. link ↗
- English, D. B., Kellogg, F. W., & Larson, D. M. (2003). Estimating the Value of Protecting Forests from Fire. Journal of Forest Economics, 9(3), 51–73. DOI: 10.1016/S1104-6899(04)80007-6 ↗