THE AUTHORS 



RESEARCH SUMMARY 



ERVIN G. SCHUSTER is research forester and Project 

 Leader of the Economics Research Work Unit, Intermountain 

 Research Station, Forestry Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, 

 MT. He received academic training in forestry at the Univer- 

 sity of Minnesota and Iowa State University, where he re- 

 ceived a Ph.D. in forest economics. His research includes 

 modeling timber harvest and timber sale design, and eco- 

 nomic impact analysis. 



MICHAEL J. NICCOLUCCI is an economist with the 

 Economics Research Work Unit. He received academic 

 training in economics at the University of Montana, where he 

 earned his M.A. His research includes timber sale design 

 and appraisal. 



Information about logging and roading costs can be very 

 important to planning and designing timber sales. Such 

 cost-related information is developed and maintained by the 

 Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, through a 

 voluminous system of complex handbooks and supplements. 

 This paper presents a much simpler, equation-based method 

 to estimate timber sale costs. We present several statistical 

 models designed to estimate logging and roading cost allow- 

 ances for timber sales in the Forest Service's Northern and 

 Intermountain Regions. Data were obtained from a sample 

 of timber sales from National Forests between 1983 and 

 1 985. Cost equations follow major appraisal cost catego- 

 ries — slash costs, transportation costs, and so forth. Equa- 

 tions were estimated by a simultaneous equation technique 

 known as Seemingly Unrelated Regression. Equations 

 accounted for 35 percent to 91 percent, averaging 58 per- 

 cent, of the variation in cost allowances. Use of models to 

 estimate cost changes is illustrated. 



Intermountain Research Station 

 324 25th Street 

 Ogden, UT 84401 



