Demand for Urban Forests and Economic Welfare: Evidence from the Southeastern U.S. Cities

This study examines the relationship between urban forests and household income and population density in the 149 cities with populations over 40,000 in nine southeastern states. Our empirical results show that urban forest percentage across the cities has characteristics of the environmental Kuznets curve. We find that household income around $39,000 is a threshold that changes the relationship between income and urban forest coverage from negative to positive, whereas the impact of population density on urban forests is just the opposite, from positive to negative when population density is around 180 persons per square kilometer.environmental Kuznets curve, environmental quality, income, land use, population density, tree canopy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, C31, Q23, Q56, Q57, R14,