The Reliability of Sportfishing Demand and Value Estimates: Evidence from the Gulf of Mexico

Estimates of the value of recreational fishing are widely used in policy analysis. For example, NOAA Fisheries calculates the change in economic value anticipated with proposed changes in saltwater fishing regulations. Studies to generate new estimates of economic value are costly and time consuming. It is, therefore, important to understand the reliability of value estimates over time in order to know when a study needs to be replicated to remain relevant for policy analysis. We replicated a sportfishing demand study in the Gulf of Mexico during 2020 and 2022 and compared the demand model parameters and related measures of willingness to pay. Our results suggest that the demand for and value of recreational fishing were relatively stable over the study period.