Valuing Sportfishing Harvest with the Demand for Boat Fuel

This article presents a novel application of the essential input welfare measure to valuing sportfishing harvest. The approach was suggested 30 years ago and has only been applied two other times with market data and has never been applied in the recreation context. We model boat fuel as an essentia...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMarine resource economics Vol. 31; no. 3; pp. 324 - 338
Main Authors Carter, David W, Marvasti, Akbar, Liese, Christopher, Crosson, Scott
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published MRE Foundation, Inc 01.07.2016
The University of Chicago Press
Subjects
Boat fuel demand
essential input
recreational fishing
revealed preference
valuation
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Summary:This article presents a novel application of the essential input welfare measure to valuing sportfishing harvest. The approach was suggested 30 years ago and has only been applied two other times with market data and has never been applied in the recreation context. We model boat fuel as an essential input in the production of sportfish harvested offshore and trace the value of changes in harvest quality with shifts in the demand for boat fuel. To implement the model we generate the first estimate of the demand for sportfishing boat fuel using the infrequent-purchases model. The estimate of boat fuel price elasticity is more than six times larger than typical estimates for the household demand for automobile fuel. Our estimates of the value of fishing quality are similar to estimates using stated preference and travel cost methods, but have the advantage of being based on market purchases. JEL Codes: Q260, Q510, Q220.
ISSN:0738-1360
2334-5985
DOI:10.1086/686580