Contingent Valuation and Real Economic Commitments: Evidence from Electric Utility Green Pricing Programmes

This paper presents the findings of two 'green pricing' studies conducted to evaluate public support of utilities' investments in renewable energy technologies. These studies compared hypothetical WTP statements with actual payment commitments. The results of these studies indicate that the CVM can be an accurate indicator of an individual's WTP, but that it is an unreliable predictor of which individuals will actually pay. This has important implications for aggregating mean WTP estimates of the value of environmental benefits. It also suggests that market simulations can be useful for predicting programme participation rates when voluntary donations are used as a payment vehicle.     

An Assessment of the Economic Effectiveness of Recreation Policy Using Contingent Valuation

Arrangements within the UK to enhance recreation opportunities in the countryside are currently implemented in a somewhat ad hoc manner. This paper analyses the economic effectiveness of such provision in Grampian Region, Scotland. This is achieved by quantifying, using the contingent valuation method, the economic benefits accruing from recreation enhancements and comparing these benefits with the level of expenditure currently being undertaken on these improvements. The subsequent analysis provides a strategic framework for the assessment of recreation needs in the region, thus enabling future priorities for provision to be identified. It is argued that the quantification of public preferences for recreation enhancements provides a powerful tool to aid strategic planning of recreation provision. The issue of using public funds to finance recreation facilities in the countryside is also discussed.     

Hypothetical and Real Economic Commitments,and Social Status,in Valuing a Species Protection Programme

There has been a long-running debate on the reliability and validity of the contingent valuation method, connected with the hypotheticality of the situation when respondents are asked to state their willingness to pay (WTP) for species protection (the so-called 'hypothetical bias'). Additionally, a number of recent arguments regarding donations to good causes and the benefits of achieving social status have questioned the motives of respondents who have stated their WTP. An experiment at the University of Klagenfurt tested for hypothetical bias by asking participants to state their hypothetical and real WTP for a species protection programme in the Hohe Tauern national park. Hypothetical and real WTP differed significantly. Additionally, it emerged that the pure ecological motive for stating a WTP might be concealed by arguments about donating in order to achieve social status and contributing to a good cause.     

Ethical Beliefs and Behaviour in Contingent Valuation Surveys

A common assumption in the economic valuation of the environment is that environmental resources can essentially be treated identically to produced goods and services in estimating welfare measures. The most critical aspect of this assumption in this regard is that individuals are willing to trade-off environmental quality changes in exchange for changes in their income. In this paper, we briefly review some of the conceptual arguments over this issue, and existing empirical evidence, before presenting the results of a new pilot study which addresses some of the possible problems in viewing the environment in this fashion.     

Economic Value of Instream Flow for Non-Commercial Whitewater Boating Using Recreation Demand and Contingent Valuation Methods

Whitewater river kayaking and river rafting require adequate instream flows that are often adversely affected by upstream water diversions. However, there are very few studies in the USA of the economic value of instream flow to inform environmental managers. This study estimates the economic value of instream flow to non-commercial kayakers derived using a Travel Cost Method recreation demand model and Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), a type of Contingent Behavior Method (CBM). Data were obtained from a visitor survey administered along the Poudre River in Colorado. In the dichotomous choice CVM willingness to pay (WTP) question, visitors were asked if they would still visit the river if the cost of their trip was $Y higher, and the level of $Y was varied across the sample. The CVM yielded an estimate of WTP that was sensitive to flows ranging from $55 per person per day at 300 Cubic Feet per Second (CFS) to a maximum $97 per person per day at flows of 1900 CFS. The recreation demand model estimated a boater’s number of trips per season. We found the number of trips taken was also sensitive to flow, ranging from as little as 1.63 trips at 300 CFS to a maximum number of 14 trips over the season at 1900 CFS. Thus, there is consistency between peak benefits per trip and number of trips, respectively. With an average of about 100 non-commercial boaters per day, the maximum marginal values per acre foot averages about $220. This value exceeds irrigation water values in this area of Colorado.     

A Lifecycle Assessment and Economic Valuation of Recycling

The financial costs of recycling schemes fail to account for external costs and benefits such as environmental pollution, road congestion and accidents. This paper compares the environmental and social impacts of a kerbside collection scheme for recyclable household waste, with a bring scheme, using lifecycle assessment. Economic valuation is used to assign relative weights to these impacts. A second comparison examines the relative external costs of recycling and landfill disposal of waste. The results show that the kerbside collection scheme has a lower external cost than the bring scheme, but this is of less importance than the benefits to be gained within the manufacturing system by using secondary materials. It is concluded that the combination of lifecycle assessment and economic valuation is an effective means of evaluation to direct the sustainable development of waste management.     

Estimating the Benefits of Agri-environmental Policy: Econometric Issues in Open-ended Contingent Valuation Studies

This paper reports on an open-ended Contingent Valuation Method study of the conservation benefits of Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) in Scotland. The ESA scheme is a central component of agri-environmental policy in the UK, and an interesting policy question concerns the extent of non-market benefits generated by such ESAs. The econometric issues we raise in this paper revolve around bid curves. Bid curves are estimated in open-ended Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) studies for three reasons. These are: (1) as a test of theoretical validity; (2) as a test of discriminant validity; and (3) as a means of benefits transfer. Within the first and last of these aims, the partial relationship between willingness to pay (WTP) and independent variables such as income is of interest. There are several econometric issues involved in estimating such relationships, First, the selection process implicit in obtaining positive WTP bids should be explicitly modelled. Second, many CVM surveys suffer from item non-response with respect to 'sensitive' questions such as the respondent's income; these non-responses may be non-random in nature. Finally, it is possible to dis-aggregate the effect of marginal changes in, say, income on WTP into two elements, namely: an effect on the probability that the individual will be willing to pay something; and secondly, an effect on how much they are willing to pay.     

A Comparison of Contingent Valuation Methodology and Ecological Assessment as Techniques for Incorporating Ecological Goods into Land-use Decisions

Contingent valuation methodology (CVM) was used to elicit financial willingness-to-pay bids for five separate sites in southern Scotland. The sites were ranked in decreasing order of the willingness-to-pay to preserve the sites, and this ranking was compared with that obtained from an ecological evaluation of the sites. The major results of this analysis were threefold. Firstly the ranking of sites according to willingness-topay bids did not show good agreement with the ranking according to ecological assessments. Secondly the public valued the landscape, ease of access and openness of the study sites higher than species-related criteria, and finally although increased species richness appeared to provide increased utility to respondents, they were not willing to pay more for the provision of this good. These results suggest that the use of CVM for valuing ecological goods will produce different results to traditional ecological assessments. Although theoretically the provision of better information may increase the accuracy of the CVM results, this may not be easy to undertake in practice. Given these conclusions it is suggested that, given the current state of knowledge, CVM should not be utilized for aiding land-use decisions in the short term.     

The Value of Countryside Access: A Contingent Valuation Survey of Visitors to the Ridgeway National Trail in the United Kingdom

A contingent valuation survey of users of the 140 km Ridgeway National Trail was undertaken to estimate the value that users place on access to the Trail. The survey found that users had a mean willingness to pay for access to the Ridgeway of £1.24 per visit (£1.13– £1.36 95% Confidence Limits). With around 150 000 visits to the Ridgeway each year, this gives an estimated annual aggregate benefit of £186 000 (£169 500– £204 000 95% Confidence Limits) plus the economic benefits to local economies of visitor spending of some £0.8 million. This compares with the costs of Trail maintenance of around £154 000 per year. The development of National Trails in England for recreation and tourism is also discussed.     

Economic Valuation of the Non-use Attributes of a Wetland: A Case-study for Lake Kerkini

Wetlands are an environmental feature which deliver a variety of market and non-market goods and services. Established environmental economic theory separates the value of these goods and services into direct-use values, indirect-use values and non-use values. Given appreciation of all three, measurements can be derived to demonstrate the amount of public money that it may be feasible to allocate to the sustainable management of wetlands. However, in many cases, non-use values are ignored and the total economic value of wetlands can be severely undervalued. As a result, inadequate resources are fed into their management and environmental degradation occurs due to inappropriate commercial exploitation of the natural resource. Lake Kerkini, in northern Greece, is one such wetland area threatened by undervaluation and overexploitation for commercial purposes, and a resource whose management would benefit from the realization of non-use values. This study therefore uses the contingent valuation method to place a value on the non-use attributes of Lake Kerkini. It also examines the relationship between the revealed non-use values and the distance people live from the lake, highlights the personal characteristics which appear important in determining total willingness to pay and breaks total non-use value down into its component parts to suggest the most important non-use elements. The paper concludes that sustainable management of the lake is justified and provides evidence that substantial public monies are potentially available to protect and enhance the environmental value of the resource.     

Ethics and Environmental Attitudes With Implications for Economic Valuation

This paper tests the hypothesis that different ethical belief systems are unrelated to the attitude an individual takes towards the environment. More specifically, the neoclassical economic approach is seen to require a belief in utilitarianism while many individuals may operate on the basis of a deontological or rights-based approach to decision-making. The concern with this relationship arises from the use of the cost–benefit analysis approach to environmental policy and the specific application of the contingent valuation method. Evidence is found to support the view that environmentalists choose to operate on a rights-based approach which rejects the relative welfare arguments of economics and positively attributes compensation to future generations for environmental damages. This implies that the contingent valuation of environmental attributes will lead to values which are biased towards technocentric optimists and against the environmental movement. In terms of policy, environmental management on the basis of totalling economic values is liable to be undemocratic because of the systematic exclusion of a section of the general public.     

Information and Willingness to Pay in a Contingent Valuation Study: The Value of S. Erasmo in the Lagoon of Venice

This paper reports on a contingent valuation (CV) study eliciting willingness to pay (WTP) for a public program for the preservation of lagoon, beach and infrastructure in the island of S. Erasmo in the Lagoon of Venice, Italy. We use split samples to investigate the effect of providing a summary of reasons for voting in favor and against the program before the referendum valuation question. Reminding respondents of the reasons for voting for or against the program increases WTP among less highly educated respondents, and decreases WTP among more highly educated respondents.     

Exploring Values,Context and Perceptions in Contingent Valuation Studies: The CV Market Stall Technique and Willingness to Pay for Wildlife Conservation

Public preferences for conservation and environmental management may be identified in willingness to pay (WTP) studies. Normally part of a contingent valuation exercise, WTP studies elicit monetary estimates of non-market economic goods. This paper describes a new approach to WTP, the CV Market Stall, a technique that adds a discursive, qualitative dimension to contingent valuation. It is suggested that the CV Market Stall technique is a good method for exploring attitudes and responses to environmental project proposals. The flexible format, with an emphasis upon information provision, discussion and learning would also allow contingent valuation to be extended to much more complex and uncertain environmental issues.     

Intelligent Databases Assist Transparent and Sound Economic Valuation of Ecosystem Services

Assessment and economic valuation of services provided by ecosystems to humans has become a crucial phase in environmental management and policy-making. As primary valuation studies are out of the reach of many institutions, secondary valuation or benefit transfer, where the results of previous studies are transferred to the geographical, environmental, social, and economic context of interest, is becoming increasingly common. This has brought to light the importance of environmental valuation databases, which provide reliable valuation data to inform secondary valuation with enough detail to enable the transfer of values across contexts. This paper describes the role of next-generation, intelligent databases (IDBs) in assisting the activity of valuation. Such databases employ artificial intelligence to inform the transfer of values across contexts, enforcing comparability of values and allowing users to generate custom valuation portfolios that synthesize previous studies and provide aggregated value estimates to use as a base for secondary valuation. After a general introduction, we introduce the Ecosystem Services Database, the first IDB for environmental valuation to be made available to the public, describe its functionalities and the lessons learned from its usage, and outline the remaining needs and expected future developments in the field.     

Economic Incentives to Conserve Wildlife on Private Lands: Analysis and Policy

Some believe that provision of private property rights in wildlife on private land provides a powerful economic incentive for nature conservation because it enables property owners to market such wildlife or its attributes. If such marketing is profitable, private landholders will conserve the wildlife concerned and its required habitat. But land is not always most profitably used for exploitation of wildlife, and many economic values of wildlife (such as non-use economic values) cannot be marketed. The mobility of some wildlife adds to the limitations of the private-property approach. While some species may be conserved by this approach, it is suboptimal as a single policy approach to nature conservation. Nevertheless, it is being experimented with, in the Northern Territory of Australia where landholders had a possibility of harvesting on their properties a quota of eggs and chicks of red-tailed black cockatoos for commercial sale. This scheme was expected to provide an incentive to private landholders to retain hollow trees essential for the nesting of these birds but failed. This case and others are analysed. Despite private-property failures, the long-term survival of some wildlife species depends on their ability to use private lands without severe harassment, either for their migration or to supplement their available resources, for example, the Asian elephant. Nature conservation on private land is often a useful, if not essential, supplement to conservation on public lands. Community and public incentives for such conservation are outlined.     

桂西北地区木豆的引种试验及生态经济效益

为了使桂西北地区的荒山坡地尽快育林封山,提高其经济和生态效益,文章对引种木豆进行了试验分析和评价,其经济和生态效益表明：木豆产量最高达1980kg/hm^2,最低为1410kg/hm^2;生物量最高达22980kg/hm^2,最低为18020kg/hm^2;随着种植年份的增加,土壤有机质,全氮,全磷和全钾年均分别增加4.15%-6.30%,3.98%-11.72%,8.96%-19.80%和12.28%-46.43%,土壤的侵蚀量和地表水径流量都显著下降,分别为220.2t/hm^2和167.2m^3/hm^2,径流系数仅为0.010。     

An Ecoregional Approach to the Economic Valuation of Land- and Water-Based Recreation in the United States

/ This paper describes a framework for estimating the economic value of outdoor recreation across different ecoregions. Ten ecoregions in the continental United States were defined based on similarly functioning ecosystem characters. The individual travel cost method was employed to estimate recreation demand functions for activities such as motor boating and waterskiing, developed and primitive camping, coldwater fishing, sightseeing and pleasure driving, and big game hunting for each ecoregion. While our ecoregional approach differs conceptually from previous work, our results appear consistent with the previous travel cost method valuation studies.KEY WORDS: Recreation; Ecoregion; Travel cost method; Truncated Poisson model     

Riverscape and Groundwater Preservation: A Choice Experiment

This study presents a quantitative approach to support policy decision making for the preservation of riverscapes, taking into account the EC Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) and the EC Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC) concerning the protection of waters against nitrate pollution from agricultural sources. A choice experiment was applied to evaluate the benefits, as perceived by inhabitants, of the implementation of policies aiming to reduce the concentration of nitrates in groundwater, preserve the riverscape by maintaining a minimum water flow and increasing hedges and woods along the Serio River in central northern Italy. Findings suggested that people were particularly concerned about groundwater quality, probably because it is strongly linked to human health. Nevertheless, it was interesting to observe that people expressed a high willingness to pay for actions that affect the riverscape as a whole (such as the minimum water flow maintenance plus reforestation). This is probably due to the close connection between the riverscape and the functions of the river area for recreation, health purposes, and biodiversity preservation.     

Valuation of externalities of selected waste management alternatives: A comparative review and analysis

Accessible and transparent data on the social costs of externalities is crucial to waste management researchers, decision-makers, and managers, if waste management strategies are to be successfully analyzed and implemented. The primary objective of this study, which is based on a thorough review of existing literature and research, was to assist the abovementioned in their decision-making with reliable recent data, by mapping, gathering, analyzing, and comparing different valuation results of external costs associated with various types of pollution and disamenities related to landfilling and incineration of solid waste.The second objective was to assess the suitability and reliability of various valuation methods and techniques that were implemented in the reviewed valuation studies, as well as the transferability of valuations across sites.The paper focuses on studies conducted since 1990, because in dynamic fields such as the waste sector, externalities, and valuation, it is essential to stay current with the most recent information and valuations.We discuss the issues and the limits of the valuation techniques and analyze the estimates of all the studies, presenting the results in the form of intervals and averages of damage costs. In spite of the inconsistencies evident in the variability in the results we reviewed, the outcome of this first comprehensive critical analysis is significant and the valuations obtained in this study provide estimates of orders of magnitude of external costs that can be used by decision makers in the waste sector to address important policy questions associated with social welfare.