Measuring Use Value from Recreation Participation: Comment

In a recent article in this Journal, Whitehead (1992) presents a method for estimating annual economic surplus for recreation trips to a natural resource site based on whether an individual participates in recreation at that site. Whitehead proposes his method as an alternative to the traditional two-stage travel cost approach. We contend that Whitehead's method contains two serious problems. The first is theoretical, and results in an overstatement of the value of recreation trips. The second is empirical, and pertains to the likely misspecification of his model in failing to incorporate what we feel is important sample information. We address these issues in order.