Valuing Chicago’s beaches across race and income

Much research has estimated the recreational values of natural areas, but that research has largely neglected the values of natural areas in urban environments, and has focused on generating total or median household values rather than exploring how benefits are distributed among racial, ethnic, and socio-economic sub-groups of society. This paper fills those gaps by estimating the value of Chicago's public beaches and how the distribution of that value is affected by income, race, access to transportation, and age. We analyze data from a travel cost survey of over 750 diverse households in the greater Chicago area. Results indicate that willingness to pay (WTP) for these urban beaches is especially high among African-Americans in the community, and that WTP first increases but then declines with increasing income. Final results will contribute to broad scholarly knowledge about the benefits of urban natural recreation sites and how those benefits accrue to people of various racial and socio-economic groups. This research can also help urban park and beach managers to understand value gained from urban beaches by locals and visitors from surrounding suburbs as well as inform decisions about expansion of neighborhood beaches or public transportation routes to access existing beaches.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Agricultural & Applied Econ

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2017

Author dc:creator

• Munaretto, Claire Margaret

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ando, Amy W.

• Travel cost method
• Non-market valuation
• Chicago
• Urban recreation
• Environmental justice
• Beaches

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2017 Claire Munaretto

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/97422

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/97422