Last Update: 05/01/2008

Benefit Estimation Project

In this project the research team will develop benefit estimates of an environmental quality improvement policy using the travel cost method. The project will involve conducting a literature review, designing a survey, collecting data with personal interviews, entering the data in a spreadsheet, statistically estimating a demand model, presenting the results to the class and writing a research report.

1. Find an environmental policy case study that involves:

• outdoor recreation (e.g., fishing, hiking, climbing)

• a potential quality improvement or avoidance of degradation (e.g., increased catch rates, improved views)

• Write a 1-2 page proposal. The proposal should include the case study you have chosen and its policy significance, the theory you are testing and your plans for data collection.

• Due date: September 14

2. Survey Design

• Develop a set of questions (no more than 10) that will allow estimation of a recreation demand curve with a hypothetical scenario that leads to a demand shift (i.e., travel cost method) or a willingness to pay scenario (i.e., contingent valuation method).

• Write a 1-2 page description of the survey. The description should include the rationale behind all of the questions and your plan for operationalizing the variables and using the data to test your theory.

• An example: Assateague Island National Seashore Survey

• IRB1.pdf; IRB2.pdf; Consent Form

• Due date: September 26

3. Data Collection

• Collect the data by actually talking to people engaged in the behavior that you are interested in. Write a 1-2 page description of the experience (include useful information such as your response rate, the time it took to conduct each interview, etc.).

• Due date: November 2

4. Data Management

• Key the data into a MS Excel spreadsheet

• Operationalize your variables: measure travel costs, etc.

5. Benefit Estimation

• Use regression analysis to fit a demand line to your data

• Use your demand line to estimate benefits of the quality improvement

• Write a 1-2 page description of your data analysis and results.

6. Presentation

• Prepare a MS Powerpoint presentation that summarizes your work.

• The presentation should be about 10 minutes (about 1 slide per minute).

• Presentation outline:

  1. Title - title of project, participants
  2. Problem description - describe what you were interested in finding
  3. Theory - demand curve
  4. Data collection - describe your survey approach
  5. Data summary - means of key variables
  6. Data summary - continued
  7. Results - regression models
  8. Results - continued
  9. Conclusions - tell us what it means it terms of your theory
  10. Future research - tell us what you would fix
  • An example

7. Research Report

• Combine the individual papers into a research report. Each team member should also submit a one paragraph statement describing (1) your own contribution to the effort and (2) an explanation of what you think you accomplished.

• Outline (sections 2-6 should be 5 pages [double spaced, 1" margins, 12 point times new Roman font]):
  1. Title page - title, your name, course number and name, date
  2. Introduction - motivate your research topic (based on proposal)
  3. Theory - A description of the conceptual model used and hypotheses tested
  4. Data - Describe the source of your your data and univariate statistics
  5. Results - Reporting your statistical findings that employs graphs, tables, etc., plus an economic* analysis of these results
  6. Conclusion - Summarize your findings and address any policy implications and unresolved issues.
  7. Figures (i.e., graphs)
  8. Tables