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Access Type

Open Access

Document Type

thesis

Degree Program

Resource Economics

Degree Type

Master of Science (M.S.)

Year Degree Awarded

2010

Month Degree Awarded

May

Keywords

Carbon Sequestration, Improved Forest Management, Ordered Logit, Ordered Logistic, Landowner Participation

Abstract

The Family Forest Research Center recently conducted a mail survey of about 1,400 Massachusetts landowners. Respondents were given questions about themselves and their land and were then asked to rate three carbon sequestration programs in terms of their likelihood to participate. An ordered logit model is used to estimate probabilities that landowners would participate in various improved forest management programs. There are several estimation issues to consider with the ordered logit model. The relative merits of alternative models, including the multinomial and binomial logit, rank-ordered logit, binary logit and mixed ordered logit are discussed.

Results of the ordered logit indicate that older males with less education and who own less than 100 acres are less likely to participate in an improved forest management program. All landowners are less likely to participate in a program that requires a management plan and that has a lengthy time commitment, low revenue stream and early withdrawal penalty. Policy implications and direction for future research are discussed.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/1274635

First Advisor

Thomas H Stevens

Second Advisor

Daniel A. Lass

COinS