PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Sundberg, Jeffrey O.
TI  - Private Provision of a Public Good: Land Trust Membership
AID  - 10.3368/le.82.3.353
DP  - 2006 Aug 01
TA  - Land Economics
PG  - 353--366
VI  - 82
IP  - 3
4099  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/82/3/353.short
4100  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/82/3/353.full
SO  - Land Econ2006 Aug 01; 82
AB  - Land trusts prevent the development of open space, providing both public and impure public goods to area residents. This study examines the relationship between these benefits and membership levels for a sample of 91 land trusts, while controlling for local demographic and area characteristics. Trusts that offer member-only access to property have higher membership, but most trusts do not provide such benefits. Membership increases with local population, but at a decreasing rate, consistent with the free-riding behavior found in other studies of collective action. The study finds the existence of scope effects with respect to the amount of protected acreage. (JEL Q15, H00)