Conference Agenda

Substitution is central to welfare measurement in travel cost recreation demand, yet single-site count models often treat substitutes either implicitly (by omission) or by adding many substitute travel-cost variables—a “wide-net” strategy that can induce multicollinearity and unstable consumer-surplus estimates. Using a national online survey covering recreation across all 23 Polish national parks (n = 5,855), we benchmark negative binomial single-site models against the utility-consistent linked site-choice/count framework of Hausman et al. (1995). We then evaluate two practical substitute controls designed for data-limited settings: (i) restricting the substitute set using correlation-based screening, and (ii) constructing low-dimensional substitute-price indices via principal components. Both approaches mitigate multicollinearity while preserving the welfare impact of substitution, yielding consumer-surplus estimates close to the linked-model benchmark. In an application to Tatra National Park, models that ignore substitutes overstate welfare, while models that include an unrestricted set of substitutes can substantially understate it. The results provide implementable guidance for improving substitute treatment in single-site travel cost studies when rich multi-site visitation data are unavailable.

Accurate welfare measures are crucial for informed environmental policymaking, particularly when it is needed to assign implicit values to public environmental goods that lack explicit market prices. The travel cost (TC) method is used to calculate the recreational value of environmental sites using data on the number of trips to these sites and the costs of making the trips. While the TC method is a revealed preference method, most analyses rely on self-reported trip information, which raises questions about the accuracy of the self-reported data and resulting value estimates. In this study, we use ex-ante expected (contingent) behavior and ex-post recalled behavior to investigate their validity for separate and joint use in recreation demand estimation.

Climate change and the interlinked biodiversity loss highlight the need for effective management of natural capital. Forests, which provide critical ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, habitat, local climate regulation, and recreational opportunities, are particularly vulnerable to climate-induced degradation. This study investigates the impact of forest ecosystem degradation on forest values and recreational behavior in Germany. We combine high-resolution spatial data on drought-induced forest loss with survey data from 2017 and 2025, including stated and revealed preference measures for forest recreation. Using the 2018–2022 extreme drought as a natural experiment, we exploit spatial variation in forest loss across Germany. We apply a difference-in-differences approach in a mixed logit model to estimate how forest degradation influences individuals’ preferences for specific forest structures, such as species and age composition. We further analyze changes in recreational behavior and the role of subjective perceptions of drought-induced damage.

Our results show that environmental degradation alters how people value forest structures. In areas experiencing higher levels of forest loss, individuals place higher value on familiar monocultures, which have become scarcer due to the drought-induced forest loss. This finding is consistent with place attachment theory. Further, respondents in high forest loss regions travel significantly longer distances (increase by 54\%) and spend more time in forests, indicating behavioral adaptation rather than reduced recreation. Overall, our study reveals substantial welfare implications of forest ecosystem degradation in terms of how it shapes individuals' forest preferences and recreational behavior.

Diversifying forests and farms can enhance resilience to biotic and abiotic shocks and serve as a climate adaptation strategy; yet, little is known about landowners and farmers’ willingness to adopt diversification for enhanced resilience. As a case study, we focus on U.S. tree syrup production, which relies heavily on a single tree species (i.e., monoculture) and is vulnerable to climate change due to the temperature-dependent nature of syrup production. To characterize the intertemporal trade-offs between immediate yield losses and long-term resilience gains in maple forest (sugarbush) diversification, we developed a dynamic optimization framework to formalize these trade-offs and derive testable hypotheses. Because maple forest diversification remains relatively uncommon in practice, revealed-preference data are limited; we therefore designed and conducted a choice experiment (CE) with maple producers in the Midwestern and Northeastern United States to test these hypotheses and elicit preferences for diversification adoption. We analyze diversification decisions using discrete choice models that account for strong status quo behavior and preference heterogeneity. Results reveal a pronounced preference for maintaining current management practices. Adoption likelihood decreases with higher diversification intensity, larger yield losses, and longer cost-share contracts, while increasing with higher incentive payments and greater peer adoption. Providing producers with region-specific projections of future syrup production under an RCP 8.5 climate scenario increases tolerance for short-term opportunity costs and raises the valuation of long-term resilience benefits. Heterogeneity analyses show that older, more risk-averse, and timber-oriented producers are less likely to diversify, whereas producers with prior engagement in conservation programs are more open to adoption. These findings highlight the importance of public programs that support diversification investments with flexible contracts, place-based climate information provision, and targeted interventions that consider the diversity of producer groups.

Labels that inform consumers about the environmental impact of food products are a promising policy tool to encourage dietary changes. However, existing evidence suggests that the behavioral effects of ecolabels remain modest, raising questions about the mechanisms underlying their limited effectiveness. This paper investigates the influence of a point-of-purchase environmental label on food choices. We test for impacts on knowledge and awareness of the environmental impacts of food consumption, and whether these translate into stated intentions and actual shifts toward more sustainable diets. We analyze data from a pre-registered field experiment in French workplace canteens, combining survey data and revealed-preference purchase data. The study follows a three-step design: (i) a pre-intervention survey measuring baseline environmental knowledge on food items and willingness to reduce red meat consumption; (ii) a two-month experimental introduction of the ecolabel in three of six canteens, covering more than 10,000 treated individuals; and (iii) a post-intervention survey assessing changes in knowledge and willingness among initial respondents. By linking stated measures to observed food choices, this study aims to shed light on the channels through which ecolabels influence dietary behavior and inform the design of more effective food labeling policies. Preliminary results indicate precise null effects on both knowledge and choices. Our survey design allows us to assess heterogeneous impacts across individuals.

This paper introduces and then evaluates a new design of a conservation auction – a rebate auction. This modification aims to incorporate auction context within the decision setting making the environment more realistic and, in the process, examine the extent to which this new feature influences (possibly lowers) rent seeking tendencies. To encourage bidders to bid closer to their true opportunity costs, all unspent funds from the auction budget are returned to all bidders – successful or not – at the end of a discriminating-price auction, with each player receiving the same rebated amount. Higher rebate payments are available, the lower the bids submitted and selected in the auction. Moreover, we pre-multiply left over funds by an investment factor, which increases the incentive for all players to moderate their rent seeking tendencies. We also test whether a priming exercise which rewards collective behavior has an impact on the performance of this Rebate Auction mechanism. Results show that (i) the rebate auction delivers an improvement in environmental performance and in the number of winning bids compared to a no-rebate format (ii) and that priming with group identity seems to worsen auction performance on a number of criteria.

This paper analyses the structural, economic, and environmental characteristics of farms

adopting biogas in France, using nationally representative administrative data and a penalised logistic regression framework. While biogas is widely promoted as a key lever for the agricultural energy transition, empirical evidence on the factors shaping its adoption at the farm level remains limited. The results show that biogas adoption is highly selective and concentrated among a narrow subset of farms. Economic size emerges as a critical prerequisite, revealing a strong threshold effect linked to the high capital intensity and irreversibility of anaerobic digestion investments. The production structure also plays a decisive role: livestock-oriented farms, particularly those based on cattle and mixed crop–livestock systems, are significantly more likely to adopt biogas than arable farms. By contrast, variables capturing environmental orientation, such as organic certification, participation in agri-environment-climate measures, or location

within Nitrate Vulnerable Zones, and sociodemographic characteristics of the farmer, exhibit weak and statistically insignificant effects once structural factors are controlled for. Spatial clustering effects, however, significantly increase the likelihood of adoption, highlighting the importance of policy design and territorial dynamics. These findings suggest that current bioga diffusion pathways are structurally constrained, raising questions about the inclusiveness and systemic reach of existing support schemes. The paper contributes to the literature by providing a multidimensional and policy-relevant account of renewable energy adoption in the agricultural sector.