Are There Enough Forest Reserves in Switzerland? A Contingent Valuation

Rev Agric Food Environ Stud

Baranzini

Maradan

2017

Self Cite

This paper analyzes the demand for recreation in Swiss forests using the individual travel cost method. We apply a two-steps approach, i.e., a hurdle zerotruncated negative binomial model, that allows accounting for a large number of nonvisitors caused by the off-site phone survey and over-dispersion. Given the national scale of the survey, we group forest zones to assess consumer surpluses and travel cost elasticities for relatively homogeneous forest types. We find that forest recreation activities are travel cost inelastic and show that recreation in Swiss forests provides large benefits to the population. The most populated area is associated with greater consumer surpluses, but the lack of recreational infrastructure may cause a lower recreational benefit in some zones. For these zones, recreational benefits may be lower than costs caused by maintenance. More efficient management would require either improving recreational infrastructure thus increasing benefits, or switching the forest status from recreational to biodiversity forest hence decreasing management costs.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Surveymentioning

confidence: 99%

A travel cost assessment of the demand for recreation in Swiss forests

Rev Agric Food Environ Stud

Baranzini

Maradan

2017

Self Cite

“…Furthermore, a probit regression revealed no impact of variables related to respondent’s disease on the probability to protest. This check allow us excluding selection bias in this case and safely dropping protest answers from the sample [ 9 ].…”

Section: Empirical Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

The costs of celiac disease: a contingent valuation in Switzerland

Soler

2021

Eur J Health Econ

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This paper proposes a first monetary measure of the private costs of celiac disease, including intangible costs (physical symptoms, logistical constraints, etc.) in Switzerland. This auto-immune disease damages the intestine when patients ingest gluten. The only treatment currently available is a gluten-free diet, which implies great nutritional constraints. To get a monetary equivalent of the costs borne by celiac patients, we used a contingent valuation. The scenario suggested to celiac patients a treatment in form of a daily pill, which would allow them to eat normally and avoid any physical pain from celiac disease. Mean Willingness To Pay (WTP) for the treatment is found to be around CHF 87 (approx. USD 87) per month. WTP is positively influenced by direct and indirect costs of the disease. Oppositely, individuals, who find the gluten-free diet healthier are willing to pay less. Finally, unlike symptoms before diagnostic, the current presence or intensity of physical symptoms are found to be insignificant. The latter result can be explained by the fact that, individuals facing stronger symptoms are more likely to adhere strictly to the GFD and hence to reduce their frequency.

“…On the one hand, a reasonable forest exploitation has positive eects as it secures forest zones and gives more room to particular fauna and ora species. On the other hand, a too intensive exploitation reduces forest's ability to provide its other services (Borzykowski et al, 2017). Given these external eects and the important decit of forestry since the 90's, 70% of forest owners are public entities.…”

Section: Wood Tradersmentioning

confidence: 99%

A supply-demand modeling of the Swiss roundwood market: Actors responsiveness and CO2 implications

Forest Policy and Economics

2019

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Given the importance of wood products in CO 2 sequestration, an increase in the use of local wood in construction may help reduce the sector's net emissions. However, given the low prices of wood, the Swiss forest industry is unwilling to produce more, despite the important potential of wood mobilization. Financial incentives may help meet the goals of both environmental and economic sustainability, if actors respond to price changes. To estimate demand and supply price-and cross-elasticities on the market for roundwood in Switzerland, we use a rich yearly time series data set covering the period 1949-2013. We consider both short term and long term relationships, thanks to a lagged adjustment model and correct for the price endogeneity using a supply-demand equations system estimated with the 3 Stage Least Squares approach. We nd that the demand for roundwood is elastic in the long and short run, while the supply is not. However, supply still responds positively to a price increase. In this context, a 10% increase in the price paid to suppliers would lead to a 5% increase in Swiss roundwood production. On the demand side, a 10% decrease in price paid by consumers would lead to a 18% increase in roundwood consumption. Such an increase in wood uses would lead to sequester 1% of Swiss CO 2 emissions each year.