This study is based on a literature review of comparative economic analyses of even‐aged and uneven‐aged forests, mainly in the European context. An initial hypothesis is formulated that silver fir/Norway spruce ‘Plenterwald’‐type of uneven‐aged forests yield higher financial outputs (net revenues) than similar even‐aged forests under similar site conditions. A model study is described which avoids the weaknesses in the investigations reviewed in the literature. The results of the model study show that the initial hypothesis cannot be upheld. Assuming the same timber quality, the most favourable variants of the even‐aged and uneven‐aged systems yielded almost the same net revenues. The calculation of capital charges on the growing stock alters these results. The most important influence on the results in the even‐aged model is the level of risk. The main difficulties in comparing the economics of even‐aged and uneven‐aged forests are discussed.
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Marc Hanewinkel (2002) studied this question.