The cost of a return journey to a soccer match can often be comparable to, or even exceed, the admission price. However, in spite of the importance of travel costs, previous studies on the demand for live soccer generally exclude travel costs from the analysis. The thesis explores the consequences of this omission and shows that the likely effect is to bias estimates of the ticket price elasticity downwards. The thesis also argues that the previous estimates of the ticket price and income elasticities are likely to be biased due to generic problems with the time series approach and methodological problems with particular pooled studies. To overcome these problems, the travel cost methodology, developed in the economics of outdoor recreation, is adapted to permit analysis of demand relationships in professional soccer. Attendance at Premier League matches is modelled as a function of travel costs and other factors, such as the admission price and consumer income, using data from a national fan survey. From the results, ticket price elasticities are estimated that are more consistent with profit maximisation than previous estimates. Subsequent analysis on the relationship between attendance and income distinguishes between the decision to become a fan and, given that one is a fan, the question of the number of games to attend in a season. The first decision is shown to be positively related to income, via a social class proxy, and the second decision unrelated to income, giving a positive income elasticity of demand.

No description available.

Thesis advisor: Julie H. Mortimer / This dissertation consists of two independent chapters on pricing and consumer demand in the retail sector. In chapter 1 develop an empirical model of Consumer Supermarket Choice that enables identification of heterogeneous consumer travel costs and is suitable for a wide range of policy experiments and the study of local competition. Chapter 2 is a theoretical investigation on pricing patterns in multi-product retail markets, when boundedly rational consumers' choice of a store is based on the price and valuation of a subset of goods. Estimation of demand systems in spatially differentiated retail markets is fundamental for understanding local competition and the impact of policy changes. It is also challenging, because shopping decisions consist of multiple dimensions: when to shop, where to shop and what to buy. In chapter 1 I develop an empirically tractable model of store choice in the supermarket industry and provide a way to identify consumers' heterogeneous travel costs without imposing restrictions on bundle choice. Using micro level data on a small market in New England, I estimate demand for stores using both a moment inequality approach and standard discrete choice techniques. I specify utility as a function of both store and bundle characteristics, and control for the endogeneity of expenditure on the bundle. I use the estimates of the discrete choice model to evaluate the welfare impact of 1) the closing of each individual store in the market and 2) the relocation of one of the stores. I find that travel costs are heterogeneous and marginally decreasing; that people like to shop at stores that are close, but also like to shop at multiple stores. Furthermore, people value stores differently (across consumers and shopping occasion) and trade off additional travel time for better store characteristics; utility differentials in preference for stores correspond to a distance ranging between zero and up to 3.3 miles. Variation in demand and substitution patterns across stores are explained by differences in store characteristics and by the shopping habits and geographic distribution of heterogenous consumers. Changes in market structure, like store entry and exit can have significant impact on consumer welfare. For example, removal on one of the stores results in a loss in CS that ranges between 8% and 44%. The assumption of rationality in retail shopping decisions appears very problematic when stores sell thousands of products and frequently vary their assortments and prices. Consumers are typically uncertain about prices at different stores and for a consumer to consider the entire distribution of bundles and prices might be a far too complex decision process. Furthermore, models with rational consumers are incapable of fully explaining important features of retail markets such as price dispersion, advertising and leader pric- ing. In chapter 2 I attempt to characterize optimal pricing by multi-product retailers when imperfectly informed consumers buy more than one product. The distinctive feature of the model is that there are two relevant moments to all purchase decisions. First, the choice of a store to visit, and second, the choice of the items to purchase. While consumers might rationally choose a store to best meet their specific needs and desires, the choice of the items to purchase is made only once in a store. Whether guided by impulse, contingent and unforeseen needs or in-store learning about a product, consumers often end up buying additional products which can generate higher profits for the stores. To examine the implications on retail pricing of this kind of behavior, I depart from a standard rational setup and introduce the concept of attractor goods. Using an an approach similar to that found in Osborne and Rubinstein (1998) and Spiegler (2006) I consider boundedly rational con- sumers whose choice between stores is based solely and entirely on the price and valuation of a subset of goods, the attractors. I show that retailer's pricing decisions have to take into account not only the direct effect of prices on a product's demand but also the effect on the demand for the other products sold in the store. The optimal pricing schedule will be a decreasing function of the goods' attractiveness, and pricing below marginal cost might be optimal for some goods. The model provides a rationale for the strategy of loss leader pricing and offers an intuitive explanation to countercyclical markups. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

Thesis (M.S.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Agricultural Economics, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on June 19, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-96). Also issued in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 1967. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 93).

Despite constituting a sheer 2% of the world’s surface area, South Africa (SA) is the third most biologically diverse country in the world and this makes the country part of the 17 member countries that make up the ‘Megadiverse Countries’(Sandwith, 2002; Nel & Driver, 2012). Besides its exceptional levels of endemism, according to Boshoff, Cowling and Kerley (2000), three of the 25 internationally recognised biodiversity hotspots are found in SA namely the Cape Florist Region, the Succulent Karoo and the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany centre of endemism. The Baviaanskloof is a very popular tourist destination, which falls within the Cape Floristic Region) ‘biodiversity hotspot’ in the Eastern Cape Province (Myers, 1988; Crane, 2007). Its high biodiversity, numerous archaeological sites, pristine environment, low crime rates, absence of malaria and easy of accessibility, makes it a perfect destination for recreationists (Clark, 1999; Boshoff et al., 2000). The Baviaanskloof was declared a ‘mega reserve’ under the Cape Action for People and Environment (CAPE) programme (CSIR, 2000). It consists of privately-owned farm land and a nature reserve called the Baviaanskloof Wilderness Area (BWA). In order to properly manage, conserve and utilise the rich natural resources of the Baviaanskloof, its benefits need to be clearly documented and demonstrated. The aim of this study is to determine the recreational value of the Baviaanskloof, and this was achieved using non-market value technique, namely the travel cost method (TCM). The TCM is used to value recreational assets via the expenditures on traveling to the site by recognising that visitors to a recreation site pay an implicit price – the cost of travelling to it, including access fees and the opportunity costs of their time (Baker & Ruting, 2014). This method is mostly used to estimate use values for recreation activities and changes in these use values associated with changes in environmental quality/quantity. The greatest advantage of the TCM is that valuation estimates are derived from real economic choices made by individuals in real markets, whereas its inability to estimate non-market values is its major weakness which only limits its application to recreational studies. In estimating the recreational value of the Baviaanskloof, data from 328 respondents were used. Five econometric models, namely, a standard Poisson specification, a Poisson specification adjusted for truncation and endogenous stratification (TES Poisson), a standard negative vii binomial model (NB), a negative binomial model adjusted for truncation and endogenous stratification (NBTES), and a generalised negative binomial with endogenous stratification (GNBES) were used to estimate the recreational value of the Baviaanskloof. Crucially, all the five models simultaneously established income and total costs to be statistically significant in determining the number of trips to the recreational site according to a priori expectations. The GNBES model was observed to have the best fit of the data than the other four models after an examination of goodness-of-fit measures in conjunction with the number of statistically significant variables per model. Of the 328 respondents surveyed, on average, visitors to the Baviaanskloof are mostly male, highly educated individuals, receiving gross annual income of ZAR436 372 (USD30 451.64) and 39.87 years of age. The mean travel cost was estimated to be ZAR1 433.56 (USD100.04) and each travelling party consisted of 4.09 people on average. Using estimates from the preferred GNBES model, the study estimated consumer surplus per trip for a recreationist to the Baviaanskloof to be ZAR1 759.32 (USD122.78). When this value is multiplied by the average annual trips a person takes to site, a value of ZAR2 445.46 (USD170.66) for consumer surplus per person is produced. Further aggregation of this value across the population (i.e. 18 500), of recreationists to the Baviaanskloof per year gives total consumer surplus of ZAR3 157 210 (USD220 321). The study concludes that the Baviaanskloof has a significant recreational value which can further be increased if policymakers take actions to, inter alia, upgrade infrastructure, budget more money for conservation and market the nature reserve in unexploited markets. Since the non-use values were not taken into account and also the impact of on-site sampling on the data set, the recreational value of the Baviaanskloof should be carefully considered in any management or conservation project. More studies of this nature are greatly needed to allow for more comparisons and increase credibility of the results of environmental valuation studies in SA.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning

The main objective of this study was to estimate the demand for and value of Oregon ocean sport-caught salmon fishery. The primary technique employed to estimate the recreational demand was an aggregated zone average travel cost method (TCM). The willingness of an angler to pay was deduced from the estimated demand for recreational fishing. The concept of consumers' surplus was used in conjunction with the travel-cost based demand functions to estimate the net economic value of Oregon ocean sport-caught salmon. The net economic value computed for the pooled data from all ten ports was found to be about $6.4 million. This value was calculated based on the total travel cost per mile of one-way distance equal to 72 cents. The regional travel cost method (RTCM) was developed to measure the effects of substitutes and quality variables in the travel cost model. A system of a linear demand equations for the six larger ports was estimated by the seemingly unrelated regression equation (SURE) method. The substitute distances as proxies for substitute prices were found to be insignificant for this model. Likewise, attempts to include substitute distances using indexes constructed by the Principal Component analysis failed to give significant results, with the exception of Garibaldi and Brookings. The total net economic value for the regional travel cost model estimated by SURE was $9.1 million. The incremental value per coho equivalent was also assessed by using the relationship between catch and effort per month by port. The coho equivalent was constructed on the basis of average weights of the commercial salmon catch, which was roughly two coho to one chinook salmon. The weighted average incremental value per coho and chinook was found to be $23.46 and $43.17, respectively. These values were about 50 percent of their respective average values. A total of 66 out of 234 distance zones created had zero values. Tobit analysis was employed to efficiently estimate the recreational demand from this kind of data. From the estimated demand function, a net economic value of about $12.7 million was obtained. This value was higher than those estimated by the SURE method and the OLS in the simple model. It should be noted that all the above value estimates were based upon demand models that were not consistent with the theory of consumer demand. However, a theoretically consistent system of demand equations was estimated and presented in Appendix D. This model fitted the data better than the other models and should give more accurate estimates of consumer surplus. / Graduation date: 1989

Potential policy decisions regarding fly fishing in the Yellowstone National Park Area could severely impact the enjoyment possibilities of many of its users. In order to determine the magnitude of the impact, this paper applies a form of the basic travel cost model developed by Bell and Leeworthy [JEEM. 18,189-205 (1990)] to fishing sites in the Yellowstone National Park Area. Bell and Leeworthy have argued that consumer demand for the time spent at a recreation site is inversely related to on-site cost per day, and may be positively related to travel cost per trip. The paper discusses relevant literature on the method, presents background information on the site, and generates a demand curve for users of the resource. A consumer surplus measurement is then derived from the resulting demand data, which gives an estimate for the value of the resource; the consumer surplus is determined to be roughly $751.88 per day spent at the site. The assumptions of the model are then discussed, and an assessment is made of the potential policy implications. / Graduation date: 1998