Time and the Recreational Demand Model

In this paper, a theoretically consistent approach to including time costs in recreational demand models is developed. The demand model is conditional on the recreationist's labor market situation. For individuals at corner solutions in the labor market, utility maximization is subject to two constraints, leading to a demand function with travel costs and travel time as independent variables. With interior solutions in the labor market, time is valued at the wage rate and combined with travel costs to produce one "full cost" variable. In an illustration, welfare measures based on the new model are estimated for a sample of sportfishermen.