The Impacts of Harmful Algal Blooms and E. Coli on Recreational Behavior in Lake Erie

This paper simultaneously examines the effect of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and harmful algal blooms on recreational behavior using survey data collected from Ohio recreators who visited Lake Erie during the summer of 2016. Using simulation based on latent class models of recreation choice, we find beach-goers and recreational anglers lose in aggregate $7.7 million and $69.1 million respectively each year if water quality conditions were to become so poor that Lake Erie's western basin were closed. Finally, we recover heterogeneity in recreators' aversion towards algae and E. coli, with beach-goers more averse to E. coli and anglers more averse to algae