Outdoor Recreation Economics

Abstract

Outdoor recreation economics is an area similar to numerous other study areas in the general field of eco nomics. Economists working in this area are concerned with the efficiency of the allocation of resources between outdoor recreation facilities and programs, on the one hand, and goods and services, generally, on the other—and, within the area of outdoor recreation, with the efficiency of the resultant mix of facilities and programs. Concomitantly, they become in volved with the question of "distributive justice," namely, the distribution of recreational opportunities among the vari ous segments of the population. In this paper, we distinguish roughly between resource-oriented outdoor recreation, on the one hand, and population- or market-oriented outdoor recrea tion on the other. In the former, we find a predominantly middle- or upper-middle-income clientele and an economic en vironment which favors application of the analytical, manage ment, and policy tools of "efficiency economics." In the latter, we find concentrations of the impoverished among ghetto residents, and the question of equitable distribution of recrea tional facilities and programs becomes equally as important as the efficiency with which they are provided.