Revealed willingness to pay for conservation across the U.S.

This paper generates new estimates of the benefits of conservation of different kinds of lands at across the entire U.S. with a novel application of choice experiment methodology in which communities reveal themselves willing (or not) to pay for conservation initiatives. We use the local referenda data from Trust for Public Land from 1988 to 2015 over the entire U.S. at the county level and estimate how the communities value different land types and conservation purposes. We analyze 458 referenda to understand how voting behavior changes with referenda attributes and socio-economic characteristics of the participating communities. Because the communities have already voted for conservation referenda, the estimates reveal their actual WTP for different land use types. Using a logit model, we find that communities value open space, recreation, and endangered species more than conservation projects with other characteristics. The results will help conservationists and policy makers alike to understand how the communities value open spaces and use the knowledge for making informed decisions