funding for the National Park Service and the designation of land as national parks or other protected land

A few things to keep in mind (from the professor): 1. Do some research, but do not get caught up in writing a research paper. This should not be a summary of policy or a summary of arguments. This assignment should involve your own analysis of the issue, based on the concepts we’ve discussed during class. 2. We use a lot of models in economics. These are simplifications of the actual process, used to illustrate important mechanisms. Use these models to think through potential causes of the problem, solutions to the problem, and consequences of policy. Still, do not think that you need to fit the problem perfectly into a simplified model. It is not as simple as “finding the efficient level of protected land” using a MAC-MD model. But you can still use the model (and the concepts of damages and abatement costs) to discuss the current state of the problem and why we may want more or less protected land. 3. Remember to think about this from an economic perspective.