CHAPTER V 



MONTANA DEER HUNTING VALUATION ANALYSIS: 

 MODEL SPECIFICATION AND ESTIMATION 



Contingent Valuation Questions Asked 



The Montana Deer Hunting Survey asked hunters to answer questions 

 on a number of aspects of their most recent hunting trip. 

 Questions were asked regarding their reasons for hunting and 

 their opinions on the management of hunting areas, as well as 

 questions on demographic and trip characteristics. A copy of the 

 questionnaire is included in Appendix A. For economic modeling 

 purposes, four contingent valuation questions were asked 

 regarding the hunter's most recent trip. The first question 

 asked the hunter to place a value on their most recent hunting 

 trip. This question asked: 



Suppose that everything about this last hunt was the 



same except your share of the expenses had been $ X more, 



would you still have made this trip? 



The hunter would answer this dichotomous choice CVM question by 

 circling either Yes or No. The dollar amount $ X was one of 10 

 predetermined bid levels ranging from $ 5 to $ 2000. This amount 

 was varied randomly across questionnaires. 



Following this question was a set of three dichotomous choice CVM 

 questions presenting hunters with hypothetical changes in their 

 most recent trip and asking them how they would value those 

 changes. These three hypothetical questions were as follows: 



Imagine that everything about this last trip was the same, 

 except that your chances of bagging a mature buck were 

 twice as great AND your trip costs to visit this site 

 increased by $ X . would you still have made the trip? 



Imagine everything about this last trip was the same 

 except your chances of killing a doe or small buck were 

 really good and your trip costs increased by $ X . 

 Would you still have made the trip? 



Now imagine that everything about your last trip was 

 the same except that you would be able to bag an 

 additional deer and your trip costs increased by 

 $_X_, would you still make the hunting trip to this area? 



The goal of asking these three hypothetical questions was to 

 determine hunters willingness to pay for alternative deer hunting 

 opportunities. As in the current trip question, the dollar 

 amount asked varied between $ 5 and $ 2000 among respondents. 



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