PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Hughes, Jonathan E.
TI  - Online Reservation Systems, Buying Frenzies and Equitable Access to Public Lands
AID  - 10.3368/le.103.1.090225-0075R
DP  - 2026 Jul 26
TA  - Land Economics
PG  - 090225-0075R
4099  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/early/2026/07/16/le.103.1.090225-0075R.short
4100  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/early/2026/07/16/le.103.1.090225-0075R.full
AB  - Rationed access is an important tool to promote sustainable use of public lands. However, online reservation systems can lead to “buying frenzies” when low prices create excess demand. Using transaction-level data for river permits in the United States sold both by reservation-system buying frenzy and lottery, I show successful frenzy buyers reside in wealthier zip codes than those selected at random. This effect increases with congestion and leads to an unequal distribution of consumption benefits where high-income zip codes receive 25 percent more recreational trip value. These effects can undermine park managers’ efforts to provide equitable access through low fees.