IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jenvss/v14y2024i4d10.1007_s13412-024-00898-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The travel cost method: a valuable tool for organizers quantifying the economic value of environmental education—a case study from Oklahoma

Author

Listed:
  • Tiffany A. Legg

    (University of Oklahoma
    University of Oklahoma)

  • Jason R. Vogel

    (University of Oklahoma
    University of Oklahoma)

  • Jeri Fleming

    (Grand River Dam Authority)

Abstract

Environmental education (EE) and training is integral to public involvement in environmental stewardship. Although entities supported by grants and public funding provide a range of benefits, determining the economic value of the EE delivered is essential in quantifying the scope of its benefit. Data on this subject are limited; this study aims to address this gap. As a non-market good, evaluating education requires a non-traditional economic approach. An approach offering a methodological value to evaluate EE is the travel cost method (TCM), which is a non-market valuation approach in the field of environmental economics. Conventionally, TCM has been used to assess the economic value of recreational sites. For this study, the TCM is applied to indirectly value EE by using the costs of travel as a proxy for what consumers pay to travel to educational events and what they would be willing to pay (WTP) in addition to the same educational experience if higher travel costs were to be incurred. This study also considers the feasibility of TCM as a method for evaluating the value of EE, particularly for EE event organizers. Data collected via the distribution of surveys at EE events within the state of Oklahoma were incorporated into an econometric model and used to observe demographic predictors associated with a willingness to travel farther to access EE. To quantify the value of EE, the difference between the actual costs and WTP was assessed. This expressed valuation of EE is intended to assist in informed decision-making on allocation of monetary resources for agencies supported by grants and public funding.

Suggested Citation

  • Tiffany A. Legg & Jason R. Vogel & Jeri Fleming, 2024. "The travel cost method: a valuable tool for organizers quantifying the economic value of environmental education—a case study from Oklahoma," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 14(4), pages 776-788, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:14:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s13412-024-00898-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s13412-024-00898-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13412-024-00898-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13412-024-00898-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leclerc, France & Schmitt, Bernd H & Dube, Laurette, 1995. "Waiting Time and Decision Making: Is Time like Money?," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 22(1), pages 110-119, June.
    2. Thomas R. Ireland, 1999. "Opportunity Cost vs. Replacement Cost In a Lost Service Analysis," Journal of Forensic Economics, National Association of Forensic Economics, vol. 12(1), pages 33-42, December.
    3. Hutcheson, Walter & Hoagland, Porter & Jin, Di, 2018. "Valuing environmental education as a cultural ecosystem service at Hudson River Park," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 31(PC), pages 387-394.
    4. Bruna Galobardes & Stefaan Demarest, 2003. "Asking sensitive information: an example with income," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 48(1), pages 70-72, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ryan W. Buell, 2017. "Last Place Aversion in Queues," Harvard Business School Working Papers 18-053, Harvard Business School, revised Oct 2019.
    2. Ross Niswanger & Eric Walden, 2022. "Quantity bias in comparison-shopping of multi-item baskets," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(2), pages 1-19, February.
    3. Yuval Rottenstreich & Alex Markle & Johannes Müller-Trede, 2023. "Risky Sure Things," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(8), pages 4707-4720, August.
    4. Mohammed Abdellaoui & Emmanuel Kemel, 2014. "Eliciting Prospect Theory When Consequences Are Measured in Time Units: “Time Is Not Money”," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(7), pages 1844-1859, July.
    5. Ronayne, David & Sgroi, Daniel & Tuckwell, Anthony, 2021. "Evaluating the sunk cost effect," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 318-327.
    6. Zokaei Ashtiani, Amin & Dudek, Thomas & Rieger, Marc Oliver, 2020. "Happy savers and happy spenders: An experimental study comparing US Americans and Germans," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    7. Ehsan Taheri & Chen Wang, 2018. "Eliciting Public Risk Preferences in Emergency Situations," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 15(4), pages 223-241, December.
    8. Oliver Bela Kovacs & Gabor Murai & Zoltan Szabo, 2023. "A dictator game study on human expectations of generosity using time as a reward medium," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 43(2), pages 999-1009.
    9. Dellaert, B.G.C. & Kahn, B., 1998. "How Tolerable is Delay? Consumers' Evaluations of Internet Web Sites After Waiting," Other publications TiSEM ca8d3a6b-4329-42ae-a595-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    10. Selçuk Onay & Ayse Öncüler, 2007. "Intertemporal choice under timing risk: An experimental approach," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 99-121, April.
    11. Cascetta, Ennio & Cartenì, Armando, 2014. "The hedonic value of railways terminals. A quantitative analysis of the impact of stations quality on travellers behaviour," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 41-52.
    12. Kroll, Eike B. & Morgenstern, Ralf & Neumann, Thomas & Schosser, Stephan & Vogt, Bodo, 2014. "Bargaining power does not matter when sharing losses – Experimental evidence of equal split in the Nash bargaining game," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 261-272.
    13. Gilles Grolleau & Angela Sutan & Sana El Harbi & Marwa Jedidi, 2018. "Do We Need More Time To Give Less? Experimental Evidence From Tunisia," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(4), pages 400-409, October.
    14. Christopher Y. Olivola & Stephanie W. Wang, 2016. "Patience auctions: the impact of time vs. money bidding on elicited discount rates," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 19(4), pages 864-885, December.
    15. William P. Barnett & Daniel A. Levinthal, 2017. "Special Issue Introduction: Evolutionary Logics of Strategy and Organization," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 1-1, March.
    16. Breaban, Adriana & Noussair, Charles N. & Popescu, Andreea Victoria, 2020. "Contests with money and time: Experimental evidence on overbidding in all-pay auctions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 391-405.
    17. Mikko Pynnönen & Jukka Hallikas & Paavo Ritala & Karri Mikkonen, 2014. "Analyzing systemic customer value in scalable business services," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(14), pages 1154-1166, October.
    18. Mikkonen, Karri & Niskanen, Hanna & Pynnönen, Mikko & Hallikas, Jukka, 2015. "The presence of emotional factors: An empirical exploration of bundle purchasing process," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(8), pages 642-657.
    19. Onesun Steve Yoo & Charles J. Corbett & Guillaume Roels, 2016. "Optimal Time Allocation for Process Improvement for Growth-Focused Entrepreneurs," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 18(3), pages 361-375, July.
    20. Jeon, Yongwoog Andrew & Son, Hyunsang & Chung, Arnold D. & Drumwright, Minette E., 2019. "Temporal Certainty and Skippable In-Stream Commercials: Effects of Ad Length, Timer, and Skip-ad Button on Irritation and Skipping Behavior," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 144-158.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:14:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s13412-024-00898-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.