Choice Modeling and Tests of Benefit Transfer

Benefit transfer is increasingly being used by decision makers as a way of estimating environmental values suitable for use in benefit cost analysis. However, recent studies examining the validity of benefit transfer of passive use values estimated using contingent valuation have rejected the hypothesis of convergent validity. In this article, we demonstrate the usage of a form of conjoint analysis known as choice modeling for benefit transfer. Choice modeling has been touted as being particularly suitable for benefit transfer because it is possible to allow for differences in environmental quality and socioeconomic characteristics when transferring benefit estimates. We demonstrate that choice modeling is suitable for benefit transfer, particularly when the transfers involve implicit prices. Second, we examine the circumstances in which benefit transfer of choice modeling derived value estimates is likely to be most valid. Two split sample tests were undertaken to achieve this objective. The evidence from these tests indicates that transfers across different case study sites are likely to be subject to less error than those across different populations.     

Testing for differences in benefit transfer values between state and regional frameworks

Policy makers are often interested in transferring non-market estimates of environmental values from a 'source' study to predict economic values at a 'target' site. While most applications of the benefit transfer process involve an opportunistic search for suitable source studies, there are some examples available of more systematic approaches to developing a framework of values for benefit transfer processes. A key issue in developing such a framework is to deal with adjustment factors, where value estimates might vary systematically according to the context of the trade-offs. Previous research has identified that large differences in scope, such as between national and regional contexts, do affect values and hence benefit transfer. The research reported in this paper indicates that such differences are not significant for smaller scope variations, such as between state and regional contexts. These results provide some promise that systematic databases for benefit transfer can be developed.     

Towards the development of a transferable set of value estimates for environmental attributes

Estimates of environmental values are frequently required as inputs to cost-benefit analyses when evaluating alternative options for managing natural resources. One strategy to avoid the high cost of conducting empirical work when non-market values are involved is to use value estimates from an existing source study and to transfer them to the target context of interest (a practice known as benefit transfer). However, the transfer of values is subject to a host of potential errors and could lead to significant overestimation or underestimation of welfare change. The present paper reports the results of a choice modelling study in which household values for the impacts of land and water degradation in Australia are estimated. A key objective of the present study was to test the validity of transferring estimates derived in a national context to different regional contexts. On the basis of these test results, inferences are made about the impact that differing contexts have on value estimates. The scale of value differences across the different contexts provides a guide for calibrating benefit transfer estimates.     

Examining demand for urban river rehabilitation in Indonesia: Insights from a spatially explicit discrete choice experiment

The demand for urban river rehabilitation can be measured through stated preference surveys such as choice experiments, providing information on the welfare estimates of a particular approach. We deploy such a technique in the context of plans to rehabilitate a major river in Jakarta, Indonesia. The current plan focuses on widening and canalizing the downstream segment of the river within Jakarta’s administrative boundary. We hypothesize that residents would demand (and thus be willing to pay for) additional components of an ecological rehabilitation program in the form of riverside park space and upstream forest conservation outside of Jakarta’s jurisdiction. We develop a spatially-explicit discrete choice experiment in which households register their preferences for channel widening, park space, forest conservation, and a monthly fee to fund the rehabilitation. Using mixed logit models we find significant and substantial demand for both park space and forest conservation, with a lower bound on the total willingness to pay (WTP) of greater than US $4 million per year for park space and nearly US $6 million per year to support reforestation in the upper catchment. These estimates are based on households within the catchment, but we find that demand did not seem to decay with distance so the upper bound on total WTP could be substantially higher. We also find that household income level has a strong effect on marginal WTP for forest conservation, minimal effect on marginal WTP for park space, and that location along the river influenced WTP for park space and channel widening. This provides further evidence that there is substantial demand for river rehabilitation in developing world cities, and that choice experiments can provide information relevant to land use planning.     

Testing Choice Experiment for Benefit Transfer with Preference Heterogeneity

Benefit transfer is a cost-effective method for estimating the value of environmental goods that relies on information obtained in previous studies. The multiattribute approach of choice experiments should provide advantages in terms of benefit transfer, allowing differences in environmental improvements between sites as well as differences in socioeconomic and attitude characteristics between respondent populations. This article investigates the capability of choice experiment method to be used in environmental benefit transfer when a random parameters approach is used to allow for preference heterogeneity: we find that the inclusion of respondents' taste heterogeneity reduces the magnitude of the transfer error.     

打造健康河流维持可持续发展

从健康河流的理念出发,提出了健康河流的概念,分析了健康河流应具有的特征,指出目前国际、国内河流普遍存在着非健康状况,同时,在分析影响河流健康的主要因素的基础上,提出了打造健康河流的构想和措施,以保护河流生态系统的健康良性发展和促进河流水资源的高效利用,保障社会经济的可持续发展.     

Status of Benefits Transfer in the United States and Canada: A Review

Benefits transfer refers to the use of existing benefit estimates in a different but similar context compared with the original study that generated the benefit estimates. Benefits transfer techniques include fixed value transfer, expert opinion and value estimator models. Although benefits transfer techniques are subject to a number of conceptual and empirical limitations, these techniques are widely applied by government agencies as input into economic assessments of public policies and projects.
Le concept d'estimation des avantages économiques par transposition de données connues s'applique à I'utilisation de données obtenues dans un certain contexte a un contexte distinct mais semblable par rapport à celui de l'étude originale. Il y a essentiellement trois variantes de cette démarche: à partir de valeurs fixes, de jugements experts ou de modèles estimateurs de valeurs. Bien que ces techniques soient exposées à un certain nombre de limites conceptuelles et empiriques, elles sont largement utilisées par les organismes gouvernementaux comme intrants pour l'évaluation economique de leurs programmes et de leurs projets.     

我国河流生态系统服务研究进展

河流生态系统服务的研究是认识和保护河流的理论基础。在对近十年我国河流生态系统服务功能、服务价值评价方法,以及价值评价应用研究进行总结的基础上,指出在河流生态系统运转机理、不同服务功能价值评价方法可靠性及干扰状态下的动态响应等方面的研究存在不足,并提出今后的研究方向和建议。     

A choice modelling case study on climate change involving two-way interactions

Choice Modelling applications can be designed to estimate main effects only or multiple-way interactions between attributes. It has been reported that higher order effects generally account for less than 10% of the choice explanation. Nevertheless, the amount of applications testing for interactions among attributes in environmental valuation is very limited. This paper reports a Choice Modelling exercise valuing climate change impacts on plant cover, land erosion and fire risk in Spanish shrublands. Two out of three two-way interactions were found significant and to account for more than 20% of the choice model explanation. Their contribution to the log-likelihood value was comparable to the one of the main effects variables. Moreover, accounting for second order interactions significantly altered the estimates of the implicit prices of attributes compared to the main effects specifications.     

基于河道内流量的河流生态系统服务价值评价模型研究

为了客观有效地评价河流生态系统服务价值,高效开发利用河流水资源,基于河道内流量的特征和功能,揭示了河道内流量的生态系统服务效应;并根据河流生态系统的构成、特征、效用和功能,探讨了河流生态系统服务功能(价值)的概念和分类;最后,以河道内流量为量化指标,建立了河流生态系统服务价值评价模型,介绍了河流生态系统服务价值的价值量评价方法。研究成果以服务效应和评价模型方式揭示了河流生态系统服务价值与河道内流量之间的复杂函数关系,为河流管理部门高效开发利用和科学规划管理河流水资源提供新思路。     

Valuing a multistate river: the case of the River Murray*

The River Murray and the Coorong in Australia have been in a state of decline. With the prospect of extended droughts and shifts in inflows due to climate change, difficult choices loom. The options include halting the decline, triage of some assets along the River or staying with the declining river system. To support decision‐making, a survey was designed to elicit willingness to pay for improvements in environmental quality. Over 3000 Australians responded to this survey. The study focuses on key River Murray environmental quality indicators: the frequency of bird breeding along the River Murray, increasing native fish populations in the River Murray, increasing the area of healthy vegetation along the River Murray, and restoring water bird habitat in the Coorong. State/Territory models were jointly estimated using a panel multinomial logit error‐components model. Willingness to pay estimates for improvements in environmental quality were calculated for the River Murray and the Coorong. Respondents were found to be willing to pay most for the Coorong and to improve waterbird breeding frequency. Respondents from the Australian Capital Territory were found to have significantly higher willingness to pay whereas those in Victoria had a significantly lower willingness to pay than respondents in other states.     

城市中小河流河长制的建设实践与思考

城市中小河流面广量大,地方有相对独立的统筹治理能力和自主权,近几年虽然开展了大量城市中小河流河长制建设,取得了一定成效,但是整体建设工作仍比较滞后。针对城市中小河流河长制建设的不足,在分析借鉴欧洲莱茵河城市段的法制建设、江苏省无锡市河长制实践、浙江绍兴市政企合作和智慧河长信息技术平台方面成功经验基础上,建议加强社会力量参与、完善法律法规体系、强化压实责任机制、创新数字河湖管理平台、控制过剩高耗水产能等对策建议,不断深化与完善城市中小河流河长制,使之成为可持续的长效机制。     

对我国流域综合规划修编的认识

多年来,在流域综合规划指导下,现行流域规划的工程建设取得了很大的成绩,但仍然存在影响经济社会可持续发展的一些问题.随着对水资源开发利用的要求不断提高,处理好保护与开发的关系对水资源的可持续利用十分重要,在新时期,需要根据新的治水思路对流域规划进行必要的修编.从维护健康河流的角度,阐述修编规划的必要性和修编的主要内容,使流域规划真正成为指导河流永续利用,维系河流健康,促进流域可持续发展的基础.     

The optimal extraction of water along an arbitrarily configured river system

The fundamental problem for any scheme of water management that tries to maximise welfare across a river system is that of determining the optimal allocation at every point. The problem cannot, in general, be avoided by trading water rights because the price will not account for the effect of extraction at any one point on all other points. This article interprets the problem in terms of the indeterminacy that results from missing information on the value of water at internal junctions between rivers. It is then solved in an optimal control theory framework.     

Rapidly escalating threats to the biodiversity and ethnocultural capital of Brazilian Indigenous Lands

Indigenous land rights have been increasingly recognized in several countries, but powerful economic and political lobbies have conspired to produce major legislative alterations to severely weaken the protection status of indigenous territories, threatening their rich ethnocultural capital and biological diversity. Here, we provide a comprehensive quantitative assessment of the demography of indigenous populations and the conservation performance of all 587 physically demarcated Indigenous Lands (ILs) in Brazil. Our results show that human population density (HPD) is higher inside than outside 50 % of ILs, dispelling the often repeated argument that there is “too much land for too few Indians”. Moreover, a strong positive relationship between IL size and indigenous population size is corroborated by larger resident populations within the largest territories, even they are sparsely settled. Over half of all ILs retain 90 % of natural vegetation and harbour 54 % of all indigenous populations living inside ILs. HPD within ILs was strongly negatively related to their proportion of natural vegetation cover. These results show the critical importance of legally protecting sufficiently large indigenous territories. Any alteration in the protection status and/or opening up ILs to economic exploitation such as mining, forestry and large-scale agriculture will affect the long-term ethnocultural integrity and the environmental viability of these territories. ILs remain critical if Brazil is to accomplish its international commitments to both protect tropical biodiversity and mitigate climate change.     

Returns to public sector plant breeding in the presence of spill‐ins and private goods: the case of bean research in Michigan

This article illustrates a methodology for assessing economic returns to a publicly funded breeding program in the presence of private sector investments, and spill‐ins from other contemporary public institutions and past research efforts. The approach consists of determining yield gains from bean improvement research; applying these yield gain estimates to measure benefits attributable to different institutional players and time periods; and then assessing the benefit‐cost ratios of investments in a bean improvement program since 1980 by Michigan State University (MSU). The results indicate that investments in MSU's bean breeding program have yielded benefits to costs ratio in the range of 0.7 to 2.2, depending on the attribution rule used to estimate the benefits. The estimated benefit/cost ratios reported in this study are lower‐bound estimates, as they do not account for potential benefits from area planted to MSU varieties outside of Michigan (spillover effects), which was 1.5 times greater than the area planted to MSU‐bred varieties within Michigan in the period 1998–2002. The implications of the increasingly privatized bean seed markets for the role of public sector research in bean improvement research are discussed.     

Australasian environmental economics: contributions,conflicts and ‘cop‐outs’*

Australian and New Zealand environmental economists have played a significant role in the development of concepts and their application across three fields within their subdiscipline: non‐market valuation, institutional economics and bioeconomic modelling. These contributions have been spurred on by debates within and outside the discipline. Much of the controversy has centred on the validity of valuations generated through the application of stated preference methods such as contingent valuation. Suggestions to overcome some shortcomings in the work of environmental economists include the commissioning of a sequence of non‐market valuation studies to fill existing gaps to improve the potential for benefit transfer.     

海宁市河道治理模式的沿革与发展

分析了海宁市河道传统治理存在的不足,探讨新时期河道治理模式及做法,提出实现新时期河流生态修复目标的措施及建议：应在满足排涝、引水等功能的同时,兼顾恢复河道生物多样性,改善河道水质,提高河道两岸的自然景观,最终实现人与自然和谐相处。     

Systematic Variation in Willingness to Pay for Aquatic Resource Improvements and Implications for Benefit Transfer: A Meta-Analysis

Researchers are increasingly considering benefit transfer approaches that allow welfare measures to be adjusted for characteristics of the policy context. The validity and reliability of such adjustments, however, depends on the presence of systematic variation in underlying WTP. This paper describes a meta-analysis conducted to identify systematic components of WTP for aquatic resource improvements. Model results reveal systematic patterns in WTP unapparent from stated preference models considered in isolation, and suggest that observable attributes account for a substantial proportion of the variance in WTP estimates across studies. The analysis also exposes challenges faced in development, estimation, and interpretation of meta-models for benefit transfer and welfare guidance. These challenges remain salient even in cases where the statistical performance of meta-models is satisfactory.     

论黄河回归故道的可行性与施工的可操作性

分析了黄河入渤海造陆的得失,认为黄河入渤海造陆得不偿失。从历史、生态效益、经济效益和社会效益方面,论证了黄河回归故道(入黄海)的可行性,并探讨了黄河回归故道的施工步骤。