IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0290713.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

COVID-19 and visitation to Central Park, New York City

Author

Listed:
  • Weizhe Weng
  • Lingxiao Yan
  • Kevin J Boyle
  • George Parsons

Abstract

Central Park is an iconic feature of New York City, which was the first and one of the hardest hit cities in the United States by the Coronavirus. State-level stay-at-home order, raising COVID-19 cases, as well as the public’s personal concerns regarding exposure to the virus, led to a significant reduction of Central Park visitation. We utilized extensive cellphone tracking data to conduct one of the pioneering empirical studies assessing the economic impact of COVID-19 on urban parks. We integrated the difference-in-difference (DID) design with the recreation-demand model. The DID design aids in identifying the causal impacts, controlling for unobservable factors that might confound the treatment effects of interest. Concurrently, the recreational demand model examines the driving factors of visitation changes and enables us to estimate the welfare changes experienced by New York City’s residents. Our findings shine a light on the substantial, yet often overlooked, welfare loss triggered by the pandemic. The analysis indicates that the pandemic resulted in a 94% reduction in visitation, corresponding to an annual consumer surplus loss of $450 million. We noted a rebound in visitation following the initial outbreak, influenced by shifts in government policy, weather conditions, holiday periods, and personal characteristics.

Suggested Citation

  • Weizhe Weng & Lingxiao Yan & Kevin J Boyle & George Parsons, 2023. "COVID-19 and visitation to Central Park, New York City," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(9), pages 1-15, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0290713
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290713
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0290713
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0290713&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0290713?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Allcott, Hunt & Boxell, Levi & Conway, Jacob & Gentzkow, Matthew & Thaler, Michael & Yang, David, 2020. "Polarization and public health: Partisan differences in social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    2. Bharali, Abinash & Mazumder, Ritwik, 2012. "Application Of Travel Cost Method To Assess The Pricing Policy Of Public Parks: The Case Of Kaziranga National Park," Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Rajarshi Majumder, vol. 1(1), pages 41-50.
    3. Joerg Luedicke, 2022. "Difference-in-differences estimation using Stata," German Stata Users' Group Meetings 2022 06, Stata Users Group.
    4. Serina Chang & Emma Pierson & Pang Wei Koh & Jaline Gerardin & Beth Redbird & David Grusky & Jure Leskovec, 2021. "Mobility network models of COVID-19 explain inequities and inform reopening," Nature, Nature, vol. 589(7840), pages 82-87, January.
    5. Michael D. Bowes & John B. Loomis, 1980. "A Note on the Use of Travel Cost Models with Unequal Zonal Populations," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 56(4), pages 465-470.
    6. John A. Kupfer & Zhenlong Li & Huan Ning & Xiao Huang, 2021. "Using Mobile Device Data to Track the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Spatiotemporal Patterns of National Park Visitation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-16, August.
    7. Jonathan Jay & Jacob Bor & Elaine O. Nsoesie & Sarah K. Lipson & David K. Jones & Sandro Galea & Julia Raifman, 2020. "Neighbourhood income and physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(12), pages 1294-1302, December.
    8. Chotikapanich, Duangkamon & Griffiths, William E., 1998. "Carnarvon Gorge: a comment on the sensitivity of consumer surplus estimation," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 42(3), pages 1-13.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Till Baldenius & Nicolas Koch & Hannah Klauber & Nadja Klein, 2023. "Heat increases experienced racial segregation in the United States," Papers 2306.13772, arXiv.org.
    2. Xiaoyan Mu & Xiaohu Zhang & Anthony Gar-On Yeh & Yang Yu & Jiejing Wang, 2023. "Structural Changes in Human Mobility Under the Zero-COVID Strategy in China," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 50(9), pages 2527-2542, November.
    3. Dena Bravata & Jonathan H. Cantor & Neeraj Sood & Christopher M. Whaley, 2021. "Back to School: The Effect of School Visits During COVID-19 on COVID-19 Transmission," NBER Working Papers 28645, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Zhang, Wenjia & Wu, Yulin & Deng, Guobang, 2024. "Social and spatial disparities in individuals’ mobility response time to COVID-19: A big data analysis incorporating changepoint detection and accelerated failure time models," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    5. Yang Song & Sungmin Lee & Amaryllis H Park & Chanam Lee, 2023. "COVID-19 impacts on non-work travel patterns: A place-based investigation using smartphone mobility data," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 50(3), pages 642-659, March.
    6. Bo Huang & Zhihui Huang & Chen Chen & Jian Lin & Tony Tam & Yingyi Hong & Sen Pei, 2022. "Social vulnerability amplifies the disparate impact of mobility on COVID-19 transmissibility across the United States," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-13, December.
    7. Kim, Junghwan & Kwan, Mei-Po, 2021. "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people's mobility: A longitudinal study of the U.S. from March to September of 2020," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    8. Michele Tizzoni & Elaine O. Nsoesie & Laetitia Gauvin & Márton Karsai & Nicola Perra & Shweta Bansal, 2022. "Addressing the socioeconomic divide in computational modeling for infectious diseases," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-7, December.
    9. Jacek Rothert, 2020. "Optimal federal redistribution during the uncoordinated response to a pandemic," Departmental Working Papers 64, United States Naval Academy Department of Economics.
    10. Bidisha Mandal & Nilton Porto & D. Elizabeth Kiss & Soo Hyun Cho & Lorna Saboe‐Wounded Head, 2023. "Health insurance coverage during the COVID‐19 pandemic: The role of Medicaid expansion," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 296-319, January.
    11. Lou, Jiehong & Shen, Xingchi & Niemeier, Deb, 2020. "Are stay-at-home orders more difficult to follow for low-income groups?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    12. Louis-Philippe Beland & Abel Brodeur & Taylor Wright, 2020. "COVID-19, Stay-at-Home Orders and Employment: Evidence from CPS Data," Carleton Economic Papers 20-04, Carleton University, Department of Economics, revised 19 May 2020.
    13. Aldo Carranza & Marcel Goic & Eduardo Lara & Marcelo Olivares & Gabriel Y. Weintraub & Julio Covarrubia & Cristian Escobedo & Natalia Jara & Leonardo J. Basso, 2022. "The Social Divide of Social Distancing: Shelter-in-Place Behavior in Santiago During the Covid-19 Pandemic," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(3), pages 2016-2027, March.
    14. Eugenio Valdano & Davide Colombi & Chiara Poletto & Vittoria Colizza, 2023. "Epidemic graph diagrams as analytics for epidemic control in the data-rich era," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    15. Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln & Dirk Krueger & André Kurmann & Etienne Lalé & Alexander Ludwig & Irina Popova, 2023. "The Fiscal and Welfare Effects of Policy Responses to the Covid-19 School Closures," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 71(1), pages 35-98, March.
    16. Nicholas W. Papageorge & Matthew V. Zahn & Michèle Belot & Eline Broek-Altenburg & Syngjoo Choi & Julian C. Jamison & Egon Tripodi, 2021. "Socio-demographic factors associated with self-protecting behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 691-738, April.
    17. Alexander Dietrich & Edward S. Knotek & Keith Kuester & Gernot J. Müller & Kristian Ove R. Myrseth & Raphael Schoenle & Michael Weber, 2020. "Consumers and COVID-19: A Real-Time Survey," Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, vol. 2020(08), pages 1-6, April.
    18. Shanike J. Smart & Solomon W. Polachek, 2024. "COVID-19 vaccine and risk-taking," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 68(1), pages 25-49, February.
    19. Anindya Ghose & Beibei Li & Meghanath Macha & Chenshuo Sun & Natasha Ying Zhang Foutz, 2020. "Trading Privacy for the Greater Social Good: How Did America React During COVID-19?," Papers 2006.05859, arXiv.org.
    20. Ester Faia & Andreas Fuster & Vincenzo Pezone & Basit Zafar, 2024. "Biases in Information Selection and Processing: Survey Evidence from the Pandemic," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(3), pages 829-847, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0290713. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.