RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The Impacts of Harmful Algal Blooms and <em>E. coli</em> on Recreational Behavior in Lake Erie
JF Land Economics
JO Land Econ
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 455
OP 472
DO 10.3368/le.95.4.455
VO 95
IS 4
A1 Wolf, David
A1 Chen, Wei
A1 Gopalakrishnan, Sathya
A1 Haab, Timothy
A1 Klaiber, H. Allen
YR 2019
UL http://le.uwpress.org/content/95/4/455.abstract
AB This paper examines simultaneously the effect of E. coli and harmful algal blooms on recreational behavior using survey data collected from Ohio recreators who visited Lake Erie during the summer of 2016. Using simulation based on latent class models of recreation choice, we find beachgoers and recreational anglers would lose in aggregate $7.7 million and $69.1 million, respectively, each year if water quality conditions were to become so poor that Lake Erie’s western basin were closed. Finally, we recover heterogeneity in recreators’ aversion toward algae and Escherichia coli, with beachgoers more averse to E. coli and anglers more averse to algae. (JEL Q51, Q53)