A STRUCTURAL ECONOMETRIC MODEL OF JOINT CONSUMPTION OF GOODS AND RECREATIONAL TIME:

This article develops a structural econometric consumer demand model for goods, which have time and monetary costs, and where time spent obtaining the goods also enters into the utility function. The model is used to analyze customers ’ decision to buy pick-your-own versus preharvested strawberries at North Carolina pick-your-own fruit operations. The analysis distinguishes the effect of time as a re-source constraint and time that provides utility. Demand for strawberries sold at the operations is price elastic, and demand for pick-your-own strawberries is less price elastic than demand for preharvested strawberries. Key words: demand analysis, pick-your-own fruit, structural econometric model. Traditional economic models of consumer be-havior assume that the demand for goods orig-inates from an optimization problem where consumers maximize utility from the consump-tion of goods subject to a monetary budget constraint. The joint effects of time in the util-ity function and as a resource constraint (tim