Hedonic Valuation of Sportfishing Harvest

• Published in: Marine resource economics Vol. 25; no. 4; pp. 391 - 407
• Main Authors: Carter, David W., Liese, Christopher
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: MRE Foundation, Inc 01.12.2010; University of Chicago Press; The MRE Foundation, Inc
• Subjects: Arithmetic mean; Boats; charter boats; Charter rates; Estimation methods; Estimators; Fishers; Fishing; hedonic; Mathematical independent variables; Passengers; Ports; Public Economics; Q22; Q26; Q51; Research Methods; revealed preference; Sport fishing; Sportfishing; Statistical Methods; valuation; Q22; valuation; Q26; hedonic; Sportfishing; charter boats; revealed preference; Q51
• ISSN: 0738-1360; 2334-5985
• DOI: 10.5950/0738-1360-25.4.391

A hedonic valuation strategy is introduced to estimate the marginal value of sportfishing harvest. The strategy uses market prices, thereby avoiding some of the measurement problems associated with the constructed or proxy prices used in common valuation methods. A charter fee hedonic equation is estimated using data from the market for offshore charter fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. The marginal value of sportfishing harvest is identified using spatial variation in harvest rates and fish sizes. A two-stage minimum distance estimator is used to address potential omitted variables and cluster-sampling issues. Our results demonstrate that valid estimates of the marginal value of sportfishing harvest can be derived directly using market prices. The estimated marginal value per fish is consistent with published estimates using alternative methods. Thus, the hedonic approach suggested in this article offers promise as an independent validation of the typical methods used to value sportfishing harvest.