A STRUCTURAL EQUATIONS APPROACH TO MODELING CONSUMPTIVE RECREATION DEMAND

In this analysis we develop a two equation structural model of a count travel cost model of recreational angling demand and angling success. By modeling the two equations jointly we avoid the difficulties assoc iated with the usual approach which estimates the demand for recreatio nal fishing sites assuming the existence of an exogenous measure of fi shing quality. Our analysis explicitly develops the joint log likeliho od function that combines the two processes. We estimate our model usi ng full information maximum likelihood methods. (C) 1997 Academic Pres s.