Valuing Great Lakes Beaches

This study aims to estimate the recreational use values of Great Lakes beaches using a two-level nested logit Random Utility Model. The choice set contains all 594 public Great Lakes beaches in Michigan. Beach sites located in the same Great Lakes water body are arranged into a nest. The trip data were obtained from a 2006 online survey using a web-panel of Michigan adults accessed through Survey Sampling International (SSI). The variables that affect the amount of utility derived from a particular site are the travel cost and site quality variables, which include beach length, days of beach advisory, and days of beach closure in 2006. We report the economic loss of permanently losing an individual beach site or a group of beach sites as well as benefits of reducing beach advisories and closures through water quality improvement along Michigan's Great Lakes shoreline