Reconciling Models of Recreational Route and Site Choices

Abstract

When employing travel cost models, the unit cost of the essential input (travel) in the household’s production of a recreation experience is central to obtaining the preference structure for the recreational good. However, little attention has been given to the choice of the route although the route defines the monetary and time costs used to compute travel costs. Conventional wisdom considers time and money costs in determining the cost per mile in the estimation of site choices but does not use both in determining the route choices and mileages. This paper investigates whether models of recreational site and route choices can be reconciled. (JEL Q26)