Analysis of the income elasticity of demand for recreational and environmental of three ecosystems in Mexico

The objective of this research is to estimate the income elasticity of demand for environmental services of three ecosystems in Mexico. In the three studies of stated preferences about the willingness to pay for an environmental quality improvement project, we used a sample size of 289 observations for the Primas Basalticos ecosystems and 150 for the La Michilía Biosphere Reserve and the Molino de Las Flores National Park. The selection of interviewees was random among visitors. To carry out the estimation, a cluster analysis was carried out to determine the income strata, where the indicator was formulated and calculated in each ecosystem for three income strata (high, medium and low) based on a segmentation of the consumers of recreational services through the two-stage clustering method. In this way, the recreational services of the three ecosystems in both cases behave as a normal good; that is, if the income of the high and middle income consumer increases, the demand for recreational services will increase less than proportionally.