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The Travel Cost Method: an empirical investigation of Randall's Difficulty

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  • Common, Mick S.
  • Bull, Tim
  • Stoeckl, Natalie

Abstract

Randall (1994) argued that the Travel Cost Method (TCM) cannot generate monetary measures of recreation site benefits for use in Cost Benefit Analysis. Randall argues that what is relevant to recreational decision‐making is the subjective, and unobservable, price of travel, whereas TCM uses the observer‐assessed cost of travel. Hence, TCM can at best give ordinally measurable welfare estimates. ‘Randall’s Difficulty’ is formulated as an estimation problem and results are derived for that problem. The meaning of, prospects for, and usefulness of ordinal measurement are explored, and the existence of a solution to Randall’s Difficulty is considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Common, Mick S. & Bull, Tim & Stoeckl, Natalie, 1999. "The Travel Cost Method: an empirical investigation of Randall's Difficulty," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 43(4), pages 1-21, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aareaj:117209
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.117209
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    1. John R. McKean & Richard G. Walsh & Donn M. Johnson, 1996. "Closely Related Good Prices in the Travel Cost Model," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 78(3), pages 640-646.
    2. John R. McKean & Donn M. Johnson & Richard G. Walsh, 1995. "Valuing Time in Travel Cost Demand Analysis: An Empirical Investigation," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 71(1), pages 96-105.
    3. Peter C. Boxall & Wiktor L. Adamowicz & Theodore Tomasi, 1996. "A Nonparametric Test of the Traditional Travel Cost Model," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 44(2), pages 183-193, July.
    4. Ian J. Bateman & Guy D. Garrod & Julii S. Brainard & Andrew A. Lovett, 1996. "Measurement Issues In The Travel Cost Method: A Geographical Information Systems Approach," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1‐4), pages 191-205, January.
    5. Englin Jeffrey & Shonkwiler J. S., 1995. "Modeling Recreation Demand in the Presence of Unobservable Travel Costs: Toward a Travel Price Model," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 368-377, November.
    6. John R. McKean & Charles F. Revier, 1990. "An Extension of: "Omitted Cross-Price Variable Biases in the Linear Travel Cost Model: Correcting Common Misperceptions"," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 66(4), pages 430-436.
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    Cited by:

    1. Roberto Martinez-Espineira & Joe Amoako-Tuffour, 2008. "Multi-destination and multi-purpose trip effects in the analysis of the demand for trips to a remote recreational site," EERI Research Paper Series EERI_RP_2008_19, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI), Brussels.
    2. Paul Mwebaze & Jeff Bennett, 2012. "Valuing Australian botanic collections: a combined travel-cost and contingent valuation study," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 56(4), pages 498-520, October.
    3. Marina Farr & Natalie Stoeckl & Rabiul Alam Beg, 2011. "The efficiency of the Environmental Management Charge in the Cairns management area of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 55(3), pages 322-341, July.
    4. Jeff Bennett, 2005. "Australasian environmental economics: contributions, conflicts and ‘cop‐outs’," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 49(3), pages 243-261, September.
    5. Chin-Huang Huang & Chiung-Hsia Wang, 2015. "Estimating the Total Economic Value of Cultivated Flower Land in Taiwan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-19, April.
    6. Natalie Stoeckl, 2003. "Measurement error and functional form: implications for welfare estimates," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(5), pages 259-270, April.
    7. Akbar Marvasti, 2010. "A welfare estimation of beach recreation with aggregate data," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(3), pages 291-296.
    8. Ovaskainen, Ville & Neuvonen, Marjo & Pouta, Eija, 2012. "Modelling recreation demand with respondent-reported driving cost and stated cost of travel time: A Finnish case," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 303-317.
    9. Bowker, James Michael & Starbuck, C. Meghan & English, Donald B.K. & Bergstrom, John C. & Rosenberger, Randall S. & McCollum, Daniel W., 2009. "Estimating the Net Economic Value of National Forest Recreation: An Application of the National Visitor Use Monitoring Database," Faculty Series 59603, University of Georgia, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    10. van Rensburg, Tom M. & Mill, Greig A. & Common, Mick & Lovett, Jon, 2002. "Preferences and multiple use forest management," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2-3), pages 231-244, December.
    11. Chun-Chu Yeh & Cheng-Shen Lin & Chin-Huang Huang, 2018. "The Total Economic Value of Sport Tourism in Belt and Road Development—An Environmental Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-14, April.

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