Testing Choice Experiment for Benefit Transfer with Preference Heterogeneity |
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| Authors: | Sergio Colombo Javier Calatrava-Requena Nick Hanley |
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| Institution: | Dr. Sergio Colombo is a researcher at the Department of Agricultural Economics of the Andalusian Institute of Agrarian Research (IFAPA). Dr. Javier Calatrava-Requena is the head of the Agricultural Economics Department of the Andalusian Institute of Agrarian Research (IFAPA). Nick Hanley is professor of environmental economics at the University of Stirling, Department of Economics. The authors thank the Spanish Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación (project, INIA RTA01-128) and the Consejería de Innovación Ciencia y Empresa, Junta de Andalucía, for financial support. |
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| Abstract: | 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. |
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| Keywords: | benefits transfer choice experiment heterogeneity random parameter model |
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