Joint consumption benefits in recreational site ‘surplus’; an empirical estimate

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Cheshire P. C. and Stabler M. J. (1976) Joint consumption benefits in recreational site ‘surplus’; an empirical estimate, Reg. Studies 10, 343–351. The assumption of Clawson's technique that the journey represents a pure cost and can be used to evaluate the benefits of non-priced recreational sites is questioned. The estimate of consumers' surplus derived from the site alone is lowered if the journey itself yields utility, thus raising the problem of the relationship between money and time-costs of travel. In an empirical investigation visitors fell into two groups—‘pure visitors’, who derived benefit solely from the site, and ‘meanderers’, who gained a benefit both from the journey and the site. Surplus estimates depended on visitor-type and the functional form; the log log produced a much wider range of estimates than the ‘symptotic’. It was concluded that the estimates of surplus depended on the assumptions made.