In this week’s episode, host Margaret Walls sits in on the annual conference of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists to talk with Daniel Phaneuf, a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, about Phaneuf’s work on estimating the value of outdoor spaces for recreation. Phaneuf discusses methods for estimating the value of nonmarket goods (e.g., outdoor recreation sites) and the influence of environmental conditions, like water quality, on people’s choices regarding the use of outdoor recreation sites. Phaneuf also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of locational cell phone data and the implications of this data for future estimates of the value of outdoor recreation sites.

References and recommendations:

“Best Practices for Implementing Recreation Demand Models” by Frank Lupi, Daniel J. Phaneuf, and Roger H. von Haefen; https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1093/reep/reaa007

Author Arthur C. Brooks at the “Atlantic” magazine; https://www.theatlantic.com/author/arthur-c-brooks/

“Harvard’s Arthur C. Brooks on the Secrets to Happiness at Work” from Harvard Business Review; https://hbr.org/2023/09/harvards-arthur-c-brooks-on-the-secrets-to-happiness-at-work

What Can Cell Phone Data Tell Us about Outdoor Recreation?, with Daniel Phaneuf

Resources Radio is a weekly podcast by Resources for the Future. Each week we talk to leading experts about climate change, electricity, ecosystems, and more, making the latest research accessible to everyone.