Economics of the night sky
Light pollution is a continuous, nearly universal environmental change that economics has only begun to price. This line of work measures what dark skies are worth to the people who travel to see them. It is run through the State of the Rockies Dark Sky Lab at Colorado College with undergraduate researchers.
- Contingent Behavior Modeling for Dark Skies Valuation at Great Sand Dunes National Park
If the night sky at Great Sand Dunes National Park were as bright as an average suburb, visitors’ consumer surplus would fall by about 23–24 percent; at urban brightness it would fall 42–44 percent. Each unit increase in satellite-measured nightlight cuts visitation by about 0.05 days per visitor over five years.