The Effect of State Parks on the County Economies of the West

Abstract

AbstractThe local economic impact of State Parks is analyzed using a cross-section sample of 250 non-metropolitan counties from the eight-State intermountain west. The analysis consists of the estimation of a disequilibrium, simultaneous econometric model of county economic development. The number of State Parks per acre of county land area is found to have a positive, statistically significant, but relatively small effect on both county population and employment densities. Specifically, 10 percent higher State Park densities are associated with 1.4 and 2.3 percent higher long run population and employment densities, all else constant. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that households are attracted to high amenity regions and that regional amenities such as State Parks can have both direct and indirect economic development implications.KEYWORDS: State parkseconomic impactdevelopmentemploymentpopulationcountyeconometricdisequilibrium