Voluntary Development Restrictions and the Cost of Habitat Conservation
构建了一个未开发土地价值的理论框架和计量模型，揭示已有的开发限制如何影响栖息地保护成本。以加州萨克拉门托县禁止农业用地开发以保护季节性池塘为例，发现忽略加州农地差别财产税评估计划会大幅高估栖息地保护成本。
The management of economic activity on private land plays an important role in the effort to maintain and improve environmental quality in the United States. The paper develops a conceptual framework and an econometric model of the value of undeveloped land to show how preexisting development restrictions affect the cost of protecting habitat. The model is applied to the case of preserving vernal pools in California's Sacramento County by prohibiting development on agricultural land. Ignoring the existence of California's program of differential property tax assessment of farmland is shown to result in a large overestimate of the cost of habitat protection.