The role of public lands in local economies of the US Lake States: A spatial simultaneous equation approach

Public lands in the United States are managed to conserve environmental resources. Serving as regional natural, historic, and/or cultural amenity endowments, these lands produce recreational opportunities for residents and exist as important regional attractants for visitors and residents thus serving as important stimuli for local retail and service sector firms. In this study, we examined associations between the presence of 13 different types of public lands with population and employment growth using a spatial simultaneous equations model for data covering 6,019 MCDs in the US Lake States region of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Results suggest that certain types of public lands were important determinants of local economic growth although these effects varied by time period. Among the thirteen types of public lands, national parks, national wildlife refuges, national recreation areas, state parks, and local parks were significant explanatory elements behind local economic growth. However, such public lands have differing and mixed effects on population and employment growth rates between the time periods 1990-2000 and 2000-2010.