Modelling recreational activities using discrete choice frameworks
Abstract
As demonstrated in the recent presidential election and the proposal to elevate the Environment Protection Agency to full cabinet status, improving and preserving the quality of our environment is a major national concern. This analysis will focus on estimating the recreational benefit of improved water quality using several discrete choice frameworks. As compared to other travel cost models, the multinomial logit model used in this analysis explicitly incorporates substitution effects among sites and thus it tends to predict a smaller benefit from pollution abatement. Based upon data collected by the 1985 National Survey on Fishing, Wildlife, and Associated Recreation conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, we developed and estimated a two stage discrete/continuous choice model and a portfolio choice model of the demand for freshwater fishing by Indiana anglers. Choice elasticities were computeded to analyze consumers' responsiveness to changes in travel cost and water qualities. Welfare benefits from pollution abatement were also calculated using several different techniques. These measures were comparatively analyzed with those obtained by Patrick, Fletcher and Lovejoy (PFL; 1987). The portfolio choice model developed has added one crucial dimension to estimating travel demand by assuming that the consumer plans his/her entire travel schedule at the beginning of the period. Current methodology assumes that the consumer makes a single simultaneous choice of destination, duration, and frequency or a series of such choices independently. Our model, however, allows the consumer to select a vector of such choices simultaneously, thus eliminating the restrictive assumptions imposed.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
McCarthy, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Economics|Recreation|Environmental science|Aquaculture|Fish production
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