An analysis of congestion measures and heterogeneous angler preferences in a random utility model of recreational fishing

The potential importance of congestion effects on the management and rationing of recreational facilities and services in the presence of heterogeneous preferences were highlighted nearly twenty-five years ago by Freeman and Haveman (1977). While there have been a number of theoretical models extending and expanding upon this work (McConnell 1988; Anderson 1993), empirical research evaluating such impacts is limited. Evidence of the potential impacts of congestion on resource usage is of obvious importance, especially for natural resource managers who understand that congestion can be an effective rationing device and because users likely differ in both their preferences for use and aversion to congestion. It is the objective of this research to compare alternative measures of congestion for explaining site choice within a random utility modeling framework. The congestion measures differ with respect to the time horizon over which they are assumed to be formulated and the measure of central tendency used to represent them. Furthermore, we investigate how the response to these congestion measures may differ across two distinct angler types and the implications of those differences on the per trip willingness to pay for stock enhancement.