IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/isu/genres/31559.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Controlling for Observed and Unobserved Site Characteristics in Rum Models of Recreation Demand

Author

Listed:
  • Abidoye, Babatunde
  • Herriges, Joseph A.
  • Tobias, Justin

Abstract

Random Utility Maximization (RUM) models of recreation demand are typically plagued by limited information on environmental and other attributes characterizing the available sites in the choice set. To the extent that these unobserved site attributes are correlated with the observed characteristics and/or the key travel cost variable, the resulting parameter estimates and subsequent welfare calculations are likely to be biased. In this paper we develop a Bayesian approach to estimating a RUM model that incorporates a full set of alternative specific constants, insulating the key travel cost parameter from the influence of the unobserved site attributes. In contrast to estimation procedures recently outlined in Murdock (2006), the posterior simulator we propose (combining data augmentation and Gibbs sampling techniques) can be used in the more general mixed logit framework in which some parameters of the conditional utility function are random. Following a series of generated data experiments to illustrate the performance of the simulator, we apply the estimation procedures to data from the Iowa Lakes Project. In contrast to an earlier study using the same data (Egan \textit{et al.} \cite{eganetal}), we find that, with the addition of a full set of alternative specific constants, water quality attributes no longer appear to influence the choice of where to recreate.

Suggested Citation

  • Abidoye, Babatunde & Herriges, Joseph A. & Tobias, Justin, 2010. "Controlling for Observed and Unobserved Site Characteristics in Rum Models of Recreation Demand," Staff General Research Papers Archive 31559, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:isu:genres:31559
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www2.econ.iastate.edu/papers/p11559-2010-05-31.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel J. Phaneuf & Catherine L. Kling & Joseph A. Herriges, 2000. "Estimation and Welfare Calculations in a Generalized Corner Solution Model with an Application to Recreation Demand," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(1), pages 83-92, February.
    2. Joseph A. Herriges & Catherine L. Kling & Daniel J. Phaneuf, 1999. "Corner Solution Models of Recreation Demand: A Comparison of Competing Frameworks," Chapters, in: Joseph A. Herriges & Catherine L. Kling (ed.), Valuing Recreation and the Environment, chapter 6, pages 163-198, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Jiang, Renna & Manchanda, Puneet & Rossi, Peter E., 2009. "Bayesian analysis of random coefficient logit models using aggregate data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 149(2), pages 136-148, April.
    4. Joseph A. Herriges & Daniel J. Phaneuf, 2002. "Inducing Patterns of Correlation and Substitution in Repeated Logit Models of Recreation Demand," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 84(4), pages 1076-1090.
    5. Murdock, Jennifer, 2006. "Handling unobserved site characteristics in random utility models of recreation demand," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 1-25, January.
    6. Hanemann, W. Michael, 1981. "Water quality and the demand for recreation," CUDARE Working Papers 6289, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    7. Edward R. Morey & Robert D. Rowe & Michael Watson, 1993. "A Repeated Nested-Logit Model of Atlantic Salmon Fishing," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 75(3), pages 578-592.
    8. Herriges, Joseph A. & Phaneuf, Daniel J., 2002. "Inducing Patterns Correlation and Substitution in Repeated Logit Model of Recreation Demand," Staff General Research Papers Archive 5035, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    9. Steven T. Berry, 1994. "Estimating Discrete-Choice Models of Product Differentiation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 25(2), pages 242-262, Summer.
    10. Train,Kenneth E., 2009. "Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521747387.
    11. Joseph A. Herriges & Catherine L. Kling (ed.), 1999. "Valuing Recreation and the Environment," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1315.
    12. Koop,Gary & Poirier,Dale J. & Tobias,Justin L., 2007. "Bayesian Econometric Methods," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521671736, June.
    13. Chan,Joshua & Koop,Gary & Poirier,Dale J. & Tobias,Justin L., 2019. "Bayesian Econometric Methods," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108437493.
    14. John A. Downing, 2009. "Valuing Water Quality as a Function of Water Quality Measures," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 91(1), pages 106-123.
    15. Sha Yang & Yuxin Chen & Greg Allenby, 2003. "Bayesian Analysis of Simultaneous Demand and Supply," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 251-275, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David A. Keiser, 2018. "The Missing Benefits of Clean Water and the Role of Mismeasured Pollution," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 18-wp581, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    2. Longo, Alberto & Hutchinson, W. George & Hunter, Ruth F. & Tully, Mark A. & Kee, Frank, 2015. "Demand response to improved walking infrastructure: A study into the economics of walking and health behaviour change," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 107-116.
    3. Lindley, Sarah & Albeke, Shannon & Viers, Joshua & Parsons, George & Johnston, Robert & Newbold, Stephen C., 2022. "Valuing Satellite Data for Harmful Algal Bloom Early Warning Systems," RFF Working Paper Series 22-23, Resources for the Future.
    4. Keiser, David A., 2018. "The Missing Benefits of Clean Water and the Role of Mismeasured Pollution," ISU General Staff Papers 201806290700001048, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    5. Babatunde Abidoye & Joseph Herriges, 2012. "Model Uncertainty in Characterizing Recreation Demand," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 53(2), pages 251-277, October.
    6. Hocheol Jeon & Joseph A. Herriges, 2017. "Combining Revealed Preference Data with Stated Preference Data: A Latent Class Approach," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 68(4), pages 1053-1086, December.
    7. Odusola, Ayodele & Abidoye, Babatunde, 2015. "Effects of Temperature and Rainfall Shocks on Economic Growth in Africa," UNDP Africa Research Discussion Papers 267028, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    8. Melstrom, Richard & Reeling, Carson, 2023. "Using aggregate trip data to value recreation sites: A comparison with individual-level methods," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335687, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. Richard T. Melstrom & Deshamithra H. W. Jayasekera, 2017. "Two-Stage Estimation to Control for Unobservables in a Recreation Demand Model with Unvisited Sites," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 93(2), pages 328-341.
    10. Yi, DongGyu, 2014. "Three studies on environmental valuation," ISU General Staff Papers 201401010800005065, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    11. Melstrom, Richard & Lupi, Frank, 2012. "Using a Control Function to Resolve the Travel Cost Endogeneity Problem in Recreation Demand Models," MPRA Paper 48036, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised May 2013.
    12. Kuwayama, Yusuke & Olmstead, Sheila & Zheng, Jiameng, 2022. "A more comprehensive estimate of the value of water quality," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    13. Abidoye, Babatunde & Odusola, Ayodele, 2015. "Climate Change and Economic Growth in Africa: An Econometric Analysis," UNDP Africa Economists Working Papers 307336, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    14. Gelo, Dambala & Turpie, Jane, 2021. "Bayesian analysis of demand for urban green space: A contingent valuation of developing a new urban park," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abidoye, Babatunde Oluwakayode, 2010. "Bayesian inference in modeling recreation demand," ISU General Staff Papers 201001010800002496, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    2. Babatunde Abidoye & Joseph Herriges, 2012. "Model Uncertainty in Characterizing Recreation Demand," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 53(2), pages 251-277, October.
    3. Herriges, Joseph A. & Phaneuf, Daniel J. & Tobias, Justin L., 2008. "Estimating demand systems when outcomes are correlated counts," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 147(2), pages 282-298, December.
    4. Yongjie Ji & Joseph A. Herriges & Catherine L. Kling, 2016. "Modeling Recreation Demand When the Access Point Is Unknown," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 98(3), pages 860-880.
    5. Phaneuf, Daniel J. & Smith, V. Kerry, 2006. "Recreation Demand Models," Handbook of Environmental Economics, in: K. G. Mäler & J. R. Vincent (ed.), Handbook of Environmental Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 15, pages 671-761, Elsevier.
    6. Fan, Wenran & Ji, Yongjie & Zhang, Wendong, 2022. "Recreational benefit disparity? Evidence from underrepresented population in Iowa," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322536, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. John A. Downing, 2009. "Valuing Water Quality as a Function of Water Quality Measures," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 91(1), pages 106-123.
    8. Ricardo Scarpa & Mara Thiene & Kenneth Train, 2006. "Utility in WTP Space: A Tool to Address Confounding Random Scale Effects in Destination Choice to the Alps," Working Papers in Economics 06/15, University of Waikato.
    9. Jeon, Yongsik & Herriges, Joseph A. & Kling, Catherine L. & Downing, John A., 2005. "The Role of Water Quality Perceptions in Modeling Lake Recreation Demand," Staff General Research Papers Archive 12474, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    10. Newbold, Stephen C. & Massey, D. Matthew, 2010. "Recreation demand estimation and valuation in spatially connected systems," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 222-240, April.
    11. Bujosa Bestard, Angel & Riera Font, Antoni, 2010. "Estimating the aggregate value of forest recreation in a regional context," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 205-216, August.
    12. Landry, Craig E. & Allen, Tom & Cherry, Todd & Whitehead, John C., 2012. "Wind turbines and coastal recreation demand," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 93-111.
    13. Egan, Kevin J. & Herriges, Joseph A. & Kling, Catherine L. & Downing, John A., 2004. "Recreation Demand Using Physical Measures Of Water Quality," 2004 Annual meeting, August 1-4, Denver, CO 19958, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    14. He, Xiaoyang & Poe, Gregory L., 2021. "Exploring the shelf-life of travel cost methods of valuing recreation for benefits transfer," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    15. Sun, Yutec & Ishihara, Masakazu, 2019. "A computationally efficient fixed point approach to dynamic structural demand estimation," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 208(2), pages 563-584.
    16. Phaneuf, Daniel J. & Carbone, Jared C. & Herriges, Joseph A., 2009. "Non-price equilibria for non-marketed goods," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 45-64, January.
    17. Kuriyama, Koichi & Michael Hanemann, W. & Hilger, James R., 2010. "A latent segmentation approach to a Kuhn-Tucker model: An application to recreation demand," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 209-220, November.
    18. Parsons, George R. & Jakus, Paul M. & Tomasi, Ted, 1999. "A Comparison of Welfare Estimates from Four Models for Linking Seasonal Recreational Trips to Multinomial Logit Models of Site Choice," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 143-157, September.
    19. Mohammed H. Alemu & Søren Bøye Olsen & Suzanne E. Vedel & John Kinyuru & Kennedy O. Pambo, 2016. "Integrating sensory evaluations in incentivized discrete choice experiments to assess consumer demand for cricket flour buns in Kenya," IFRO Working Paper 2016/02, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    20. Ruben Loon & Tom Gosens & Jan Rouwendal, 2014. "Cultural heritage and the attractiveness of cities: evidence from recreation trips," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(3), pages 253-285, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    nonmarket valuation; water quality; discrete choice;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C25 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions; Probabilities
    • Q25 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Water
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:isu:genres:31559. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Curtis Balmer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deiasus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.