PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Christian S. L. Crowley
AU  - Arun S. Malik
AU  - Gregory S. Amacher
AU  - Robert G. Haight
TI  - Adjacency Externalities and Forest Fire Prevention
AID  - 10.3368/le.85.1.162
DP  - 2009 Feb 01
TA  - Land Economics
PG  - 162--185
VI  - 85
IP  - 1
4099  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/85/1/162.short
4100  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/85/1/162.full
SO  - Land Econ2009 Feb 01; 85
AB  - This paper models landowner behavior on timberland subject to damage by fire. We examine how management decisions by adjacent landowners yield outcomes that diverge from the social optimum, and consider how this divergence depends on landowner preferences and information. We conduct a numerical simulation in which landowners interact through the effects of their fire prevention activities on a common risk of fire. The results reveal significant social inefficiencies related to externalities associated with private fuel treatment decisions. We consider a policy for aligning social and private decisions by requiring landowners to share the government’s cost of fire suppression. (JEL Q23, Q28)