Problems in valuing the benefits of biodiversity protection

This paper considers two problems in valuing the benefits of biodiversity protection. These are, firstly, that preferences for biodiversity protection may be lexicographic rather than utilitarian. The more individuals for whom this is true, the less is cost-benefit analysis validated as a means of decision making for biodiversity protection, since lexicographic preferences are incompatible with the Kaldor-Hicks Compensation Test. Secondly, people may be poorly informed about the meaning of biodiversity, complicating the use of contingent valuation as a means of measuring preservation benefits. This paper first discusses the meaning of biodiversity, and trends in diversity over time. We offer some empirical evidence with regard to lexicographic preferences; consider the implications of having poorly-informed consumers; and then report the results of a contingent valuation study of biodiversity protection with varying levels of information. We find that willingness to pay for biodiversity protection increases with the level of information provided.We thank David Pearce, participants at a seminar at University College London, and two referees for comments on earlier versions of this paper.     

Environmental Valuation – To Use or Not to Use? A Comparative Study of the United States and Europe

Valuation methods have been used for five main purposes in environmental decision-making. Cost–benefit analysis (CBA) of projects, CBA of new regulations, natural resource damage assessment, environmental costing, and environmental accounting. The relatively lower importance attached to economic efficiency in environmental decision-making in most European countries compared to the U.S.A., both legally and in practice, might account for our general finding that there are very few valuation studies in Europe which have served as a decisive basis for environmental policy and regulations. However, with EU's goal to establish environmentally adjusted national accounts and to apply CBA to environmental policy and regulations, time seems ripe for an increased use of valuation techniques in Europe.     

Complements, Substitutes, Budget Constraints and Valuation

This study employs a multi-program contingent valuation (CVM) design tosimultaneously assess the value of three ecosystem conservation programsin Alberta, Canada. The design is different from most other CVM designsand has several different features including the natural incorporation ofdirect reminders of substitute/complementary programs and budgetconstraints. In contrast to the findings of other studies, two of the environmentalprograms appear to be complements and other combinations of the programssuggest an absence of substitution effects. The multi-program model ismore informative and robust in terms of theoretical validity and expectedrelationships with demographic and recreational characteristics of therespondents.     

Preference Structures, Property Rights, and Paired Comparisons

The method of paired comparisons was used to determine the structure of survey participants' value expressions for Australian native forests. The same participants were also surveyed using the contingent valuation method (CVM). Data from the paired comparisons were used to construct preference maps which enabled identification of participants whose value expressions were structurally incompatible with economic welfare theory – in particular, those participants who expressed their values according to lexicographic preferences. For some of these participants, CVM results did not provide appropriate measures of WTP. The surveys also demonstrated the importance of allowing participants' own views on property rights to dictate the valuation context offered.     

An Experimental Testing of Anchoring Effects in Discrete Choice Questions

This paper re-examines the openended/dichotomous choice question in the lab. It hasearlier been suggested that the dichotomous choiceformat suffers from anchoring and yea-saying.Comparing actual economic commitments for a privategood with a significant market value, we cannot rejectthe null hypothesis of equal WTP for the two formats.We conclude that problems with DC might be due toissues of how the survey is framed, not the DCquestion itself.     

Anomalies and Stated Preference Techniques: A Framework for a Discussion of Coping Strategies

This paper introduces a symposium on the issue of how stated preference (SP) research can best cope with ‘anomalies’ (i.e. systematic deviations from the predictions of standard economic theory) in survey responses. It proposes a framework for constructive debate, recognising (i) the legitimate aspirations of SP research, (ii) the relevance of evidence from sources other than best-practice SP, and (iii) the precautionary value of investigating strategies for coping with suspected anomalies, even if questions about the robustness of anomalies have not been finally resolved. Five alternative coping strategies, discussed in more detail in the symposium, are briefly introduced. JEL classifications: D61, D63, Q51     

文化遗产旅游资源非使用价值评价研究——以旅顺太阳沟为例

文化遗产是一项重要的旅游资源,但由于它的非市场性,给其价值的量化带来挑战.近年来,在诸多文化遗产旅游资源价值评价的实证研究中,大多强调其使用价值而常常忽略这类资源具有的非使用价值,从而大大低估了文化遗产的实际价值,降低了保护政策的制定所需信息的准确性.文章运用条件评价法(CVM)结合单边二分式问卷设计方法,获取游客陈述性偏好数据,通过构建随机效用模型,对大连旅顺太阳沟老城区文化遗产旅游资源的非使用价值进行评价,分析影响价值水平的主要因素.结果表明,基于Logit模型估计的非使用价值为61.8(元/人),其中存在价值为22.9元、遗产价值为28.3元、选择价值为10.6元,表明目前游客更加关注太阳沟文化遗产旅游资源的遗产价值.     

Minimising Payment Vehicle Bias in Contingent Valuation Studies

The payment vehicle is a crucial element inapplications of the contingent valuation methodbecause it provides the context for payment. However,in many countries a relative unfamiliarity with theuse of tax levies and referenda can affect theplausibility of payment vehicles and lead to paymentvehicle bias. The most commonly used approach fordetermining whether payment bias exists is to usetests of convergent validity. It is demonstrated thatsimple tests of convergent validity can be ineffectivein diagnosing the existence of payment vehicle bias.Payment vehicle bias is found to occur because ofdifferences in the coverage of payment vehicles anddoubts about payment being one-off. When respondentsare found to be protesting against a particularpayment vehicle, the current state of the art approachis to delete them from the sample. In this paper analternative approach that relies on the recoding ofprotest responses is proposed.     

调查评价法在非景区型森林景观价值评估中的应用

针对非景区型森林景观具有公共物品的特性,运用调查评价法评估其经济价值。在星子县大排岭瓷土矿区森林景观价值评估中,477个样本的人均支付意愿为66.86元,以白鹿镇人口为基数,计算大排岭矿区森林景观的总价值为1 671 834元。在支付意愿相关性分析中发现:收入与支付意愿中度相关(r=0.64,p<0.01),职业、学历与支付意愿低度相关(r=0.352&0.367,p<0.01),年龄、性别与支付意愿不相关。     

Benefit Transfer: A Comparison of WTP for Air Quality between France and Germany

A contingent valuation study was carried out under similar conditions on two sites simultaneously: Strasbourg (France) and Kehl (Germany) in order to test the reliability of the benefit transfer method. On average, the air quality is approximately the same in the two cities. Using a transfer of the benefit function, we compared the direct estimated benefits from improved air quality with the transferred benefits in the same city. The originality of this test is that the valued good is the same in both cities, which means that the transfer is an intra-site transfer. However our findings show that the method of benefit transfer was not generally valid. Indeed inhabitants of Kehl declared a higher price for their state of health and air quality than inhabitants in Strasbourg. This result could be explained by a stronger sensitivity to environmental problems in Germany.     

A Learning Design for Reducing Hypothetical Bias in the Contingent Valuation Method

Over the last few years a great deal of research has focussed on hypothetical bias in value estimates obtained with the contingent valuation (CV) method and on means for ameliorating if not eliminating such bias. To date, efforts to eliminate hypothetical bias have relied on calibration techniques or on word-smithing of one kind or another to induce subjects to provide responses to hypothetical questions that mimic responses made by subjects facing actual payments in the valuation experiment. This paper introduces a different approach for eliminating hypothetical bias. A design for a CV survey format is presented which provides subjects with the opportunity to learn how the CV institution works. Sequential referenda are conducted where respondents gain experience in CV settings by participating in both hypothetical and real referenda. The logic of this Learning Design is a straightforward application of the trials process used in experimental economics. We demonstrate that the Learning Design is effective in eliminating hypothetical bias in surveys concerning donations to two different public goods.     

Marine Debris, Beach Quality, and Non-Market Values

This paper reports the first attempt to measure the importance of controlling marine debris as an aesthetic characteristic of beaches and coastal area. The results are based on a contingent valuation survey designed to estimate the economic value people would place on controlling marine debris on recreational beaches in New Jersey and North Carolina. A Weibull survival model was estimated treating for and against votes as defining censoring points for an unknown willingness to pay distribution. The findings suggest: (1) people do distinguish situations with differing amounts of debris when they are described using color photographs; (2) the pilot survey implies measures of people's willingness to pay (WTP) for debris control are consistent with a scope test in that larger WTP is associated with programs intended to address situations for more serious background levels of debris; and (3) local beach conditions seem to influence how people interpreted the plans describing beach conditions without the proposed control programs.     

Binary Choice Valuation Studies with Heteregeneous Preferences Regarding the Program Being Valued

We investigate the effect of respondents' heterogeneous preferences regarding the good to be valued in binary-choice contingent valuationstudies. This is especially important when the valuation options give rise to both highly negative and highly positive attitudes.The survey design employs questionnaires which include separate items for willingness to favorandwillingness to contribute in monetary terms to the provision of the good. In light of our analysis, eliciting respondents' differentpreferences for the project first, without monetary considerations, wouldimprove the WTP estimates as welfare measures. Our results alsosuggest that nonparametric estimation could offer another solution foraccounting for preference heterogeneity. Nonparametric estimation is less sensitive to those `no' responses which are in fact not intended toreflect the respondents' WTP as such but merely to express their dislikefor the good at issue.     

A Bayesian Approach to Double Bounded Contingent Valuation

In this paper we propose a Bayesian approach to model double bounded contingent valuation data. The double bounded elicitation method is interpreted as a two tier iterated process in which the subject is allowed to have a second thought about his/her valuation for the environmental good. Prior information is modelled from the answers to the first dichotomous choice question. The model is Quasi-Bayesian (Q-B) in that the prior distribution refers to mean willingness to pay while the likelihood function refers to the proportions of a multinomial distribution. This model is applied to empirical data from a contingent valuation survey involving the valuation expressed by European tourists for access to natural areas in the Canary Islands. Results show that point estimate of consumer surplus computed with the Q-B model does not differ substantially from single bounded model estimation. In addition, double bounded seems to be quite robust to the choice of the prior model of willingness to pay responses. Comparison with open ended suggests that the Q-B model might be useful to control for strategic response and starting point biases.     

Using Choice Experiments to Value the Environment

This paper we outline the “choice experiment” approach to environmental valuation. This approach has its roots in Lancaster's characteristics theory of value, in random utility theory and in experimental design. We show how marginal values for the attributes of environmental assets, such as forests and rivers, can be estimated from pair-wise choices, as well as the value of the environmental asset as a whole. These choice pairs are designed so as to allow efficient statistical estimation of the underlying utility function, and to minimise required sample size. Choice experiments have important advantages over other environmental valuation methods, such as contingent valuation and travel cost-type models, although many design issues remain unresolved. Applications to environmental issues have so far been relatively limited. We illustrate the use of choice experiments with reference to a recent UK study on public preferences for alternative forest landscapes. This study allows us to perform a convergent validity test on the choice experiment estimates of willingness to pay.     

基于条件价值评估法的中国巨灾风险保险模式定量设计——基于网络问卷调查的实证研究

巨灾风险损失经验数据的缺乏使得保险人设计合理的巨灾风险保险模式存在较大困难。基于巨灾风险保险的准公共物品性质,通过网络问卷调查,运用条件价值评估法,从消费者意愿角度对中国巨灾风险保险模式的主要项目进行定量设计,可以克服非寿险常规费率厘定方法的缺陷,对纠正巨灾风险保险市场失灵亦有积极意义。     

Valuing Health Impacts from Air Pollution in Europe

Health impacts make up asignificant portion of the damage costs fromair pollution. In lack of European valuationstudies on morbidity impacts, cost-benefitanalyses, transport and energy externalitystudies, and green accounting exercises inEurope have all used values from more than tenyear old US valuation studies. Results from anew Contingent Valuation study, using animproved version of the survey design of themost transferred US morbidity study, show thatrespiratory symptom days and asthma attacks arevalued lower in Norway than in the US.Correction were made for differences inpurchase power between the two countries, butthe US values are still expressed in 1986dollar values; indicating that the differencebetween the two estimates could be even higher.Thus, the practise of transferring US estimatesand only adjusting the values with the consumerprice index could lead to highly biased valuesin the Norwegian case. The difference betweenthe US and Norwegian values can be explained byimproved CV survey and sample design, differentpreferences in Norway compared to the US, anddifferent public health care systems. We do notknow if we can generalise the results from thisNorwegian study to the rest of Europe, but thestudy clearly illustrates the uncertainty intransferring results from one country toanother.