International Journal of Economy, Energy and Environment

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High Altitude as an Environmental Economic Good: Estimating Its Economic Value Using Willingness to Incur Costs by Athletes

Received: 26 August 2019    Accepted: 21 October 2019    Published: 09 June 2020
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Abstract

High altitude training provides acclimatization to athletes by enhancing endurance; however, this environmental service has remained unaccounted and un-priced. Therefore, this study sought to estimate economic value of high altitude services to athletes using travel cost valuation approach. This study was carried out at Iten Township in Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya. Systematic simple random sampling technique was used in administering 223 structured questionnaires to respondents. Excel and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version-20) were used for data analysis. Findings from the study showed that athletes incurred estimated cost of about $9.59 per day to train at high altitude, while high altitude attributes such as experience, safety and altitude acclimatization were highly ranked as motivating factors by athletes to train in the study area. Results from statistical tests revealed that experience, age of athletes, safety and altitude effects were significantly difference in influencing athletes’ willingness to incur extra cost for altitude acclimatization. Analysis from logit model showed that experience, age of athletes, safety and altitude effects had high probability to influence athletes to train at high altitude areas. However, stochastic variable in the model showed significant difference in influencing willingness to incur cost by athletes while training at high altitude. This error term explains unobserved variables in the model which were beyond the scope of this study. In conclusion athletes are willing to incur travelling and living costs to train at high altitude areas in order to gain incremental altitude training effects as affirmed by bootstrap hypothesis testing results. Significant of this study will inform policy and decision makers on critical information while they develop sustainable infrastructure, legislation and policies for sports industry.

DOI 10.11648/j.ijeee.20200503.11
Published in International Journal of Economy, Energy and Environment (Volume 5, Issue 3, June 2020)
Page(s) 24-31
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Altitude Training, Acclimatization, Willingness to Incur Cost, Travelling Cost and Living Costs

References
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Author Information
  • Department of Applied Environmental Social Science (Environmental Economics), University of Eldoret, Eldoret, Kenya

  • Department of Applied Environmental Social Science (Environmental Economics), University of Eldoret, Eldoret, Kenya

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    Silah Misoi, Andrew Kiptum. (2020). High Altitude as an Environmental Economic Good: Estimating Its Economic Value Using Willingness to Incur Costs by Athletes. International Journal of Economy, Energy and Environment, 5(3), 24-31. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijeee.20200503.11

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    ACS Style

    Silah Misoi; Andrew Kiptum. High Altitude as an Environmental Economic Good: Estimating Its Economic Value Using Willingness to Incur Costs by Athletes. Int. J. Econ. Energy Environ. 2020, 5(3), 24-31. doi: 10.11648/j.ijeee.20200503.11

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    AMA Style

    Silah Misoi, Andrew Kiptum. High Altitude as an Environmental Economic Good: Estimating Its Economic Value Using Willingness to Incur Costs by Athletes. Int J Econ Energy Environ. 2020;5(3):24-31. doi: 10.11648/j.ijeee.20200503.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijeee.20200503.11,
      author = {Silah Misoi and Andrew Kiptum},
      title = {High Altitude as an Environmental Economic Good: Estimating Its Economic Value Using Willingness to Incur Costs by Athletes},
      journal = {International Journal of Economy, Energy and Environment},
      volume = {5},
      number = {3},
      pages = {24-31},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijeee.20200503.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijeee.20200503.11},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijeee.20200503.11},
      abstract = {High altitude training provides acclimatization to athletes by enhancing endurance; however, this environmental service has remained unaccounted and un-priced. Therefore, this study sought to estimate economic value of high altitude services to athletes using travel cost valuation approach. This study was carried out at Iten Township in Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya. Systematic simple random sampling technique was used in administering 223 structured questionnaires to respondents. Excel and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version-20) were used for data analysis. Findings from the study showed that athletes incurred estimated cost of about $9.59 per day to train at high altitude, while high altitude attributes such as experience, safety and altitude acclimatization were highly ranked as motivating factors by athletes to train in the study area. Results from statistical tests revealed that experience, age of athletes, safety and altitude effects were significantly difference in influencing athletes’ willingness to incur extra cost for altitude acclimatization. Analysis from logit model showed that experience, age of athletes, safety and altitude effects had high probability to influence athletes to train at high altitude areas. However, stochastic variable in the model showed significant difference in influencing willingness to incur cost by athletes while training at high altitude. This error term explains unobserved variables in the model which were beyond the scope of this study. In conclusion athletes are willing to incur travelling and living costs to train at high altitude areas in order to gain incremental altitude training effects as affirmed by bootstrap hypothesis testing results. Significant of this study will inform policy and decision makers on critical information while they develop sustainable infrastructure, legislation and policies for sports industry.},
     year = {2020}
    }
    

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    T1  - High Altitude as an Environmental Economic Good: Estimating Its Economic Value Using Willingness to Incur Costs by Athletes
    AU  - Silah Misoi
    AU  - Andrew Kiptum
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    DO  - 10.11648/j.ijeee.20200503.11
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    JF  - International Journal of Economy, Energy and Environment
    JO  - International Journal of Economy, Energy and Environment
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    AB  - High altitude training provides acclimatization to athletes by enhancing endurance; however, this environmental service has remained unaccounted and un-priced. Therefore, this study sought to estimate economic value of high altitude services to athletes using travel cost valuation approach. This study was carried out at Iten Township in Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya. Systematic simple random sampling technique was used in administering 223 structured questionnaires to respondents. Excel and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version-20) were used for data analysis. Findings from the study showed that athletes incurred estimated cost of about $9.59 per day to train at high altitude, while high altitude attributes such as experience, safety and altitude acclimatization were highly ranked as motivating factors by athletes to train in the study area. Results from statistical tests revealed that experience, age of athletes, safety and altitude effects were significantly difference in influencing athletes’ willingness to incur extra cost for altitude acclimatization. Analysis from logit model showed that experience, age of athletes, safety and altitude effects had high probability to influence athletes to train at high altitude areas. However, stochastic variable in the model showed significant difference in influencing willingness to incur cost by athletes while training at high altitude. This error term explains unobserved variables in the model which were beyond the scope of this study. In conclusion athletes are willing to incur travelling and living costs to train at high altitude areas in order to gain incremental altitude training effects as affirmed by bootstrap hypothesis testing results. Significant of this study will inform policy and decision makers on critical information while they develop sustainable infrastructure, legislation and policies for sports industry.
    VL  - 5
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