Valuing a Change in a Fishing Site without Collecting Characteristics Data on All Fishing Sites: A Complete but Minimal Model

Resource economists are often asked to value a proposed change at one, and only one, recreational site; the model we develop and estimate is applicable for those cases. The application is valuing the elimination of fish consumption advisories on a large bay on Lake Michigan. The model is minimal but complete: complete in that the choice set is not restricted, minimal in that only two conditional indirect utility functions are estimated. It is utility-theoretic and one does not have to collect characteristic data on all of the other fishing sites in the region. Data include the number of trips each individual currently takes to Green Bay, answers to "would you prefer to fish Green Bay under conditions A or B?" and how often each angler says they would fish Green Bay under different sets of conditions.