The Economics of Fish Consumption Advisories: Insights from Revealed and Stated Preference Data

Abstract

Measuring how fish consumption advisories affect angler’s utility has proven difficult. Relying on stated preference (SP) data is problematic because of hypothetical bias. Revealed preference (RP) data benefits from using actual behavior; however, co-linearity often makes it difficult to model the array of advisory severity levels across different species and catch rates. The array of advisories also makes traditional joint estimation impractical. This paper describes an alternative joint estimation technique, based on an index of SP parameter, that we used for estimating the effect of fish consumption advisories on the Fox River/Green Bay. (JEL Q51, D18)