| The U.S. has majority of its forestland, an estimated 393 million acres (Birch, 1996a), under private control. Such enormous proportion of private ownership makes private forestry the most important component in the nation's forest products markets. Private forest management is affected by a host of economic, political, and social factors. To ensure sound management of private forests, it is therefore necessary to analyze and understand the dynamics involved in the relationship between private forestry and these factors. A total of four policy issues, namely, environmental legislation, private property rights, technical, and financial assistance for non-industrial private landowners are analyzed in this dissertation.; Economists view legislative process as a transaction in the political market, of which interest groups are on the demand side and legislators on the supply side. A new legislation, when enacted, becomes a new policy and may have intended or unintended effects on private forest management activities. Analysis of legislator voting behavior on the Endangered Species Act and property rights bills confirmed the presence of an incentive structure that dictated voting. Party affiliation was found to be significant, but was certainly not the only factor. Number of species listed in each state, proportion of urban population, contribution of the natural resources sector in each state's gross domestic product were also found to have significant effects. In case of private property rights, whether or not the state has a protective clause in its constitution in favor of private property rights was also important.; Assistance for forest landowners may be technical or financial. Econometric models to analyze each of these forms of assistance were estimated. The first type of model was aimed at identifying the factors affecting a landowner's choice of a type of forester for harvesting and reforestation assistance. The significant factors in this case were income, size of the holding, whether or not a management plan was prepared, the ratio of pine species on land, and time spent on land. The second type of model was designed to identify the factors that determine the presence of cost-share programs in a state. The significant determinants were contribution of the forestry sector in gross state product, proportion of total state land area under private control, per capita state debt, per capita state personal income, and whether or not the state was in the South. |
