The US national park system includes 423 sites covering more than 85 million acres of land and some of the most iconic landscapes in the country. The parks host approximately 320 million visitors a year. In this review, I survey the economics literature on national parks, focusing on four main topics: values and economic impacts of the parks, funding challenges, congestion and overcrowding, and resource management issues related mainly to climate change. In each area, I discuss gaps in the literature, new data and methods that could be applied to national parks, and important topics for future research. The most pressing needs are for more empirical research on use values, using new data sources and modern econometric methods, and relatedly, studies of the responsiveness of demand to pricing, which would be helpful for addressing both congestion and funding challenges.

中文翻译：

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美国国家公园系统的经济学：价值、资金和资源管理挑战

美国国家公园系统包括 423 个地点，占地超过 8500 万英亩的土地，拥有该国一些最具标志性的景观。这些公园每年接待大约 3.2 亿游客。在这篇评论中，我调查了有关国家公园的经济学文献，重点关注四个主要主题：公园的价值和经济影响、资金挑战、拥堵和过度拥挤以及主要与气候变化相关的资源管理问题。在每个领域，我讨论了文献中的空白、可应用于国家公园的新数据和方法以及未来研究的重要主题。最紧迫的需求是使用新的数据源和现代计量经济学方法对使用价值进行更多的实证研究，以及相关的需求对定价的反应性研究，这将有助于解决拥堵和资金挑战。