PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Hand, Michael S.
AU  - Thacher, Jennifer A.
AU  - McCollum, Daniel W.
AU  - Berrens, Robert P.
TI  - Intra-Regional Amenities, Wages, and Home Prices: The Role of Forests in the Southwest
AID  - 10.3368/le.84.4.635
DP  - 2008 Nov 01
TA  - Land Economics
PG  - 635--651
VI  - 84
IP  - 4
4099  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/84/4/635.short
4100  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/84/4/635.full
SO  - Land Econ2008 Nov 01; 84
AB  - Forests provide non-market goods and services that people are implicitly willing to pay for through hedonic housing and labor markets. But it is unclear if compensating differentials arise in these markets at the regional level. This empirical question is addressed in a study of Arizona and New Mexico. Hedonic regressions of housing prices and wages using census and geographic data show that forest area carries an implicit price of between $27 and $36 per square mile annually. Compensating differentials at the regional level suggest that care must be taken when applying the travel cost method to value regionally delineated characteristics. (JEL Q23, R14)