estimating the public good value of preserving a local historic landmark the role of non substitutability and citizen information this study applies stated preference methods to estimate the public good values of preservation and restoration of a local historic landmark in a medium sized us city the survey device centres on

improving willingness to pay estimates for quality improvements through joint estimation with quality perceptions willingness to pay for quality change may depend on heterogeneous perceived quality levels contingent valuation studies should include measures of quality perceptions as covariates in the willingness to pay model in order to avoid omitted variable bias variation in quality perceptions across respondents leads to a potential endogeneity of quality perceptions i address the potential for endogeneity bias using an instrumental variables approach in which a measure of quality perceptions is included as a determinant of willingness to pay and is simultaneously determined by various exogenous factors the willingness to pay model is estimated jointly with quality perceptions allowing for correlation of the error terms using data on willingness to pay for water quality improvements in the neuse river in north carolina i reject exogeneity of perceived quality correcting for endogeneity improves the measurement of willingness to pay by differentiating willingness to pay among respondents with heterogeneous quality perceptions

political aspects of innovation abstract political aspects that enhance but also undermine the positive transformational power of public innovation policies are examined as such this paper follows michal kalecki in his 1943 paper that identifies the political aspects which enhance and undermine the positive transformational power of keynesian full employment policies similarly this paper provides a policy framework that identifies what government and business support as innovation policies the role of innovation stems from schumpeter s long run perspective but incorporates the more dynamic cyclical short term and trend perspectives of kalecki this paper critiques the strategy of public innovation policy in general and derives policy implications

recreational demands for maintaining instream flows a contingent valuation approach recreational uses of streams although nonconsumptive increasingly conflict with traditional off stream uses of water in arid regions recreational demands for instream flows have collective good attributes such that the recreationists preferences may be inadequately reflected in water allocation decisions the contingent valuation approach was adapted to impute instream flow shadow prices from a sample of recreationists on the cache la poudre river in northern colorado during periods of relatively low flows the estimated instream flow marginal value exceeds the marginal value of water in irrigation suggesting a need for altered water allocation policies

comparative reliability of the dichotomous choice and open ended contingent valuation techniques abstract the comparative reliability of dichotomous choice and open ended contingent valuation methods cvm is evaluated by resurvey of the same households 9 months after their original survey test retest correlations on willingness to pay are statistically significant at the 1 level and range from 0 57 for the dichotomous choice cvm to 0 62 for the open ended cvm the test retest correlations were not statistically different between dichotomous choice and open ended cvm a likelihood ratio test for temporal stability of each method s willingness to pay functions indicates stability half of the time for both methods

valuing non market goods using contingent valuation abstract contingent valuation is a technique being developed by economists for the valuation of environmental commodities not traded in markets this paper discusses the major problem areas associated with this method of value estimation these comprise bias strategic hypothetical and design biases the discrepancy between willingness to pay and compensation demanded the aggregation procedure the choice of question format and non use values some evidence from comparative studies is reported and comments made on the accuracy of contingent valuation answers finally the conditions under which contingent valuation seems to operate best are set out

using contingent valuation to enhance public participation in local planning o doherty r 1996 using contingent valuation to enhance public participation in local planning reg studies 30 667 678 this paper examines the adequacy of currency practices in public participation exercises from both theoretical and empirical perspectives it is concluded that the procedures adopted by planners are largely ineffective in allowing the general public to have a say in the shaping of their local environment a suggestion is made for the improvement of these procedures based on the use of the contingent valuation method in an attempt to minimize the cost of implementing this suggestion some empirical work incorporating a transferable demand function is reported the results of this initial fieldwork show some promising signs for future research o doherty r 1996 l utilisation de la methode de l estimation contingente afin d accroitre la participation publique a la planification locale reg studies 30 667 678 cet article cherche a examiner du point de vue a la fois theorique et em

information effects in contingent markets information bias in contingent markets is poorly understood in this paper testable hypotheses concerning beneficial contingent market information effects are developed conceptually perspective information and relative expenditure information were expected to increase comprehension and increase bids provision cost information was expected to counteract free riding behavior and also increase bids hypothesis tests using experimental markets suggested that each information type induced small statistically insignificant bid increases however the combined effect of the three information types induced a desirable statistically significant increase in bids this result supports the contention that not all contingent market information effects are biases

valuation on the frontier calibrating actual and hypothetical statements of value the lack of robust evidence showing that hypothetical behavior directly maps into real actions remains a major concern for proponents of stated preference nonmarket valuation techniques this article explores a new statistical approach to link actual and hypothetical statements using willingness topay field data on individual bids from sealed bid auctions for a 350 baseball card our results are quite promising estimating a stochastic frontier regression model that makes use of data that any contingent valuation survey would obtain we derive a bid function that is not statistically different from the bid function obtained from subjects in an actual auction if other data can be calibrated similarly this method holds significant promise since an appropriate calibration scheme ex ante or ex post can be invaluable to the policy maker that desires more accurate estimates of use and nonuse values for nonmarket goods and services benefit cost analysis remains the dominant paradigm used throughout the public sector yet a recurring issue in properly estimating the total benefits of nonmarket goods and services is whether hypothetical statements map into real behavior some recently published studies provide evidence that suggests important differences exist between responses from real and hypothetical valuation questions 1 this observation triggered a search for an ex ante and ex post procedure to correct the systematic bias between intentions and actions in valuation exercises recent technology using ex ante procedures has produced some strong evidence that hypothetical bias can be overcome by using a cheap talk scheme see e g cummings and taylor list ex post calibration has also shown some signs of promise as work due to blackburn harrison

a satisfactory benefit cost indicator from contingent valuation abstract standard economic concepts are used to develop a model of individual behavior when subject to the constraints of the contingent valuation choice context the model yields refutable consequences that are consistent with previously reported empirical findings including some that have been thought to be anomalous the model is used to show that different contingent valuation formats have predictably different performance characteristics notably the hicksian compensating measures are satisfactory benefit cost indicators when elicited using any one of several formats identified in the text of the formats examined one form of a policy referendum appears to have the most satisfactory characteristics overall we conclude that contingent valuation is a progressing research program

are citizens willing to pay for agricultural multifunctionality agricultural multifunctionality is the recognition of the joint exercise of economic environmental and social functions by the agricultural sector in order to make the concept operative for the design of public policies it is necessary to estimate the social demand for such functions the main objective of this article is to present an empirical application in this sense for this purpose we have adopted the agricultural system of cereal steppes in tierra de campos in spain as a case study the economic valuation technique used is the choice experiment the results suggest the existence of a significant demand for the different functions although the demand is heterogeneous depending on the socioeconomic characteristics of the individuals surveyed

the advantages of contingent valuation methods for benefit cost analysis the preceding is a taxonomic discussion of some reasons why contingent market methods may often be a superior means of generating data with which to value non market commodities we have argued that economists have erred in viewing the situations these methods posit as necessarily fictional that the data generated by the methods may for non marketed goods and the activities with which they are associated accord more closely with the conditions of received economic theory that the methods can make it easier to remove the difficulties of estimation and interpretation introduced by confounding variables and that they often permit one to deal more readily with phenomena that have not been in the range of historical experience nevertheless whatever the advantages a major disadvantage remains until detailed analytical knowledge is acquired of the manner in which expectations are formed there exists no way to refute empirical propositions established from contingent markets nevertheless the previously mentioned south coast air basin experiment where the bids obtained for clean air conformed fairly closely to the values implied in a residential property value study suggest that contingent valuations have a basis in the real decision processes of consumers

decisiveness attitude expression and symbolic responses in contingent valuation surveys abstract despite suggestions that respondents to contingent valuation studies often follow alternate models of individual decision making few theoretical models have been developed the paper presents a theoretical model of symbolic and attitude expressive contingent valuation responses drawing on relevant contributions in psychology and political science it is argued that the highly symbolic and emotional nature of many environmental issues often activates the need for individuals to express their attitudes and values which when coupled with a perceived non decisiveness of individual questionnaire responses can result in value expressive considerations dominating some cvm responses at the expense of the desired outcome appraisal economic tradeoffs the implications for some topical issues in cvm are explored

confidence intervals for evaluating benefits estimates from dichotomous choice contingent valuation studies i evaluate the potential usefulness of nonmarket valuation concepts and techniques from environmental economics for improving wildlife conservation the concepts include distinguishing between on site recreation use value and off site passive use or

static and dynamic efficiency of pollution control strategies a great deal of the economic literature on pollution control strategies concentrates on the efficiency of environmental policy instruments most analytical studies in this field show that market instruments are more efficient with respect to the cost of pollution abatement of a given number of polluters than non market instruments according to several analytical studies market instruments should also be more efficient with respect to innovation in pollution abatement equipment than non market instruments in the empirical literature a great number of case studies exist with estimations of the savings of abatement costs of market instruments in a situation without technological progress empirical studies about the impact of environmental policy market instruments on the abatement costs in situations with technological progress are lacking

the net benefit of saving the asian elephant a policy and contingent valuation study reports results from a contingent valuation cv survey of willingness to pay wtp for the conservation of the asian elephant of a sample of urban residents living in three selected housing schemes in colombo the capital of sri lanka face to face surveys were conducted using an interview schedule is a non linear logit regression model is used to analyse the respondents responses for the payment principle questions and to identify the factors that influence their responses we investigate whether urban residents wtp for the conservation of elephants is sufficient to compensate farmers for the damage caused by elephants we find that the beneficiaries the urban residents could compensate losers the fanners in the areas affected by human elephant conflict hec and be better off than in the absence of elephants in sri lanka therefore there is a strong economic case for the conservation of the wild elephant population in sri lanka however we have insufficient data to determine the optimal level of this elephant population in the kaldor hicks sense nevertheless the current population of elephant in sri lanka is kaldor hicks preferable to having none c 2003 elsevier b v all rights reserved

strength of preference indicators and an ordered response model for ordinarily dichotomous discrete choice data abstract recent environmental regulations raise the importance of accurate survey based methods to estimate environmental values while interviewing costs stimulate research to improve dichotomous choice survey methods this paper proposes using strength of preference indicators along with dichotomous contingent response data we model strength of preference indicators as quasi cardinal measures using an ordered response model we find that strength of preference indicators provide substantial efficiency gains while increasing respondents effort minimally with evidence that interpersonal comparison of preference ratings induces no bias the ordered response model of utility and willingness to pay is superior even in predicting the binary choice results

strotz meets allais diminishing impatience and the certainty effect abstract decision makers tend to exhibit a higher degree of impatience when considering a delay to an immediate reward than when contemplating an identical delay to an equal future reward this work argues that diminishing impatience originates from the distinction between the certain present and the risky future a simple functional representation of preferences exhibiting time inconsistency when the future is uncertain is derived experimental evidence which is inconsistent with other formulations that account for diminishing impatience supports the proposed approach the new theory uncovers a tight relation between diminishing impatience and well known behavioral regularities in choice under risk and uncertainty jel d12 d81

contingent valuation experiments for strategic behavior abstract the existence and extent of strategic disclosures in field contingent valuation surveys have been debated but few empirical studies are available this paper summarizes the results of an experiment to identify strategic behavior using alternative disclosure mechanisms with closed ended and open ended formats in addition the experiment examined the effect of mechanism design on respondent s ability and willingness to disclose their personal valuation statistical results using censored discrete regression analysis and nonparameteric means tests provide some evidence of systematic differences due to strategic behavior but the comparisons are inconclusive due to the significant influence of sample selection on valuation results using closed ended formats and the inherent limitations of comparative means test procedures evidence from this analysis cannot refute the hypothesis that respondents try to the best of their ability to provide truthful information but the procedures used to interpret this information can have a significant effect on aggregate valuation results

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

contingent valuation techniques for assessing environmental impacts further evidence abstract this paper provides further evidence on the development and application of the iterative bidding technique used to assess environmental impacts three specific issues the hypothetical nature of the survey technique the questionnaire information structure and the bidding procedure starting point are examined theoretically and empirically to determine their effect on individual bid behavior the empirical results indicate that the importance of these influences may have been overstated in earlier studies

difficulties in valuing street light improvement trust surprise and bound effects previous empirical research has demonstrated an internal inconsistency that may occur in response strategies between the first and second valuations made to closed ended contingent valuation questions one possible explanation for this bound effect is the surprise of being asked the second valuation question which may be enhanced where there is a lack of trust this paper considers the use of closed ended contingent valuation to estimate non market benefits for an improved street lighting scheme where there is a lack of trust in the agency responsible for provision the results provide confirmation that surprise is an important determinant of bound effects however efforts to reduce such bias using a prior statement of the bid range were found to be ineffective in increasing trust and reducing surprise given the importance of this area of research directions for future research are considered

public funding of environmental amenities contingent choices using new taxes or existing revenues for coastal land conservation alternative funding approaches affect stated preferences an individual s willingness to reallocate existing tax dollars exceeds willingness to pay new taxes to conserve land however stated preferences also imply a non zero opportunity cost to existing tax dollars different income groups reveal statistically equivalent marginal utilities both for income and for reallocating tax dollars yet individuals with lower income show a relatively larger increase in their willingness to support land conservation when the choice shifts from new taxes to reallocation of existing tax dollars the paper encourages consideration of equity implications that may be obscured when analysts focus on willingness to pay

semiparametric estimation of the binary choice model for contingent valuation this paper is concerned with the estimation of the binary choice model without imposing any parametric structure on the distribution of the stochastic term we adapt the distribution free maximum l

valuing public goods a comparison of survey and hedonic approaches although the theory of public goods has progressed rapidly since paul samuelson s seminal article the empirical measurement of the value of demand for public goods only recently has received increased attention perhaps the best known and most widely accepted empirical approach has been the use of hedonic prices wherein for example it is assumed that either wages or housing values reflect spatial variation in public good characteristics of different communities this indirect approach based on theoretical work of charles tiebout kelvin lancaster sherwin rosen and others has proven quite successful among public goods or bads which have been valued using the hedonic approach are climate i hoch air pollution robert anderson and thomas crocker d harrison and d rubinfeld social infrastructure r cummings et al and other community characteristics such as noise level j nelson and ethnic composition ann schnare an alternative approach is to directly ask households or individuals to state their willingness to pay for public goods using survey techniques despite arguments that strategic bias will invalidate survey results there exists the need for an alternative to the hedonic approach as an example consider the case of a remote and unique scenic vista valuable to recreators which is threatened by air pollution from a proposed coal fired plant a typical situation in the western united states although it is possible in principle to impute the value of clean air and visibility from the relative decline in local visitation which might follow construction of a power plant information on the value of visibility at the site is needed prior to construction for socially optimal decision making on plant location and pollution control equipment the hedonic approach is unavailable both because the scarcity of local population as opposed to recreators makes use of wage or property value data impossible and because scenic vistas may themselves be unique for these reasons a randall et al first applied survey methods for valuing visibility and other environmental effects of large coal fired power plants in the four corners region of new mexico since this initial application the survey approach has been widely used to value environmental commodities where market data for hedonic analysis is difficult to acquire see for example brookshire ives and schulze rowe et al brookshire et al other early attempts to value public goods using the survey approach include r davis peter bohm and j hammack and g brown although results of using the survey approach for estimating the value of public goods appear to be internally consistent replicable and consistent with demand theory see schulze et al little work on external validation has been reported thus the purpose of this paper is to report on an experiment designed to validate the survey approach by direct comparison to a hedonic property value study the los angeles metropolitan area was chosen for the experiment because of the well defined air pollution problem and be assistant professor university of wyoming assistant professor university of missouri rolla associate professor university of wyoming and professor university of wyoming respectively the research reported here was funded under a grant methods development for assessing air pollution control benefits from the u s environmental protection agency we would like to give special thanks to alan carlin and shelby gerking for their helpful suggestions and contributions additional helpful comments were received from a myrick freeman iii john tschirhart and james murdoch all conclusions are of course our sole responsibility

exploring preference anomalies in double bounded contingent valuation double bounded dichotomous choice dbdc contingent valuation offers increased efficiency of willingness to pay wtp estimates compared with the single bounded format however evidence suggests dbdc generates anomalous respondent behaviour this paper provides the first investigation and explanation of these anomalies in health results suggest the incentives for truthful preference revelation are altered in the presence of a follow up question this result is found using both regression techniques and analysis of raw responses although findings suggest very certain respondents exhibit less anomalous behaviour inconsistencies remain across bounds the results of this study question the use of iterative valuation formats

contingent valuation controversies and evidence contingent valuation cv has become one of the most widely used non market valuation techniques cv s prominence is due to its flexibility and ability to estimate total value including passive use value its use and the inclusion of passive use value in benefit cost analyses and environ mental litigation are the subject of a contentious debate this paper discusses key areas of the debate over cv and the validity of passive use value we conclude that many of the alleged problems with cv can be resolved by careful study design and implementation we further conclude that claims that empirical cv findings are theoretically inconsistent are not generally supported by the literature the debate over cv however has clarified several key issues related to nonmarket valuation and can provide useful guidance both to cv practitioners and the users of cv results

estimating four hicksian welfare measures for a public good a contingent valuation investigation using equivalent loss the mone tary loss equivalent to a proposed amenity reduc tion el and equivalent gain the gain equivalent to a proposed amenity increase eg alongside traditional welfare measures in a contingent valu ation study of traffic disamenity we report an ex periment designed to test theoretical explanations of the well known disparity between compensat ing surplus and equivalent surplus measures of welfare no compelling evidence is found in favor of loss aversion as a cause of the disparity mean while as valuation measures the performance of el is similar to the traditional willingness to pay for a gain while eg performs poorly jel q26

information and the divergence between willingness to accept and willingness to pay abstract there is considerable empirical and experimental evidence that there is a divergence between willingness to accept compensation to give up a good and willingness to pay to obtain a good this divergence persists even when the good in question is small relative to income a result in apparent conflict with standard economic theory this paper develops a theoretical bidding model with costly information acquisition to explain this divergence the model generates a gap between offers to sell and bids to buy consistent with the experimental results we argue that the model does a better job of explaining empirical and experimental data than either of the two commonly invoked theoretical explanations the endowment effect and the substitution effect

consumer s surplus without apology the purpose of this paper is to settle the controversy surrounding consumer s surplus and by so doing to validate its use as a tool of welfare economics i will show that observed consumer s surplus can be rigorously utilized to estimate the unobservable compensating and equivalent variations the correct theoretical measures of the welfare impact of changes in prices and income on an individual i derive precise upper and lower bounds on the percentage errors of approximating the compensating and equivalent variations with consumer s surplus these bounds can be explicitly calculated from observable demand data and it is clear that in most applications the error of approximation will be very small in fact the error will often be overshadowed by the errors involved in estimating the demand curve the results in no way depend upon arguments about the constancy of the marginal utility of income consequently this paper supplies specific empirical criteria which can replace the apologetic caveats frequently employed by those who presently apply consumer s surplus moreover the results imply that consumer s surplus is usually a very good approximation to the appropriate welfare measures to preview below i establish the validity of these rules of thumb for a

the impact of information on environmental commodity valuation decisions a conceptual model is developed which provides insight into how information affects willingness to pay for environmental commodities a refutable hypothesis of the effects of a specific information type on the magnitude of willingness to pay for an environmental commodity is developed this hypothesis is tested using a contingent valuation method experiment results indicate that information affects willingness to pay in a theoretically plausible manner the results support the contention that information is important for accurate environmental commodity consumer valuations

efficient provision of a public project almost without knowing the cost sharing rule abstract a group of agents must decide whether or not to undertake a project a simple mechanism is presented which implements the social choice function when the cost sharing rule fulfills only two properties budget balance and payment bounds

further tests of entreaties to avoid hypothetical bias in referendum contingent valuation abstract over estimation of willingness to pay in contingent markets has been attributed largely to hypothetical bias one promising approach for avoiding hypothetical bias is to tell respondents enough about such bias that they self correct for it a script designed for this purpose by cummings and taylor was used in hypothetical referenda that differed in payment amount in comparisons with behavior observed in otherwise identical real payment referenda the script worked remarkably well at higher payment levels dropping the likelihood of a yes vote to the level obtained in separate sample real referenda but less well at a lower payment level the repeated success of the script at higher payment amounts is a clear sign that additional research is warranted research that will bring us a more complete understanding of how the entreaty works this research may need to explore its workings at the individual respondent level

theoretical incentive properties of contingent valuation questions do they matter in the field abstract green et al 1998 green d jacowitz k e kahneman d mcfadden d 1998 referendum contigent valuation anchoring and willingness to pay for public goods resource and energy economics 20 2 85 116 show theoretically that stated preference questions about public services can be framed in such ways that if the subjects accept the frame the payoff maximizing behavior will be to answer truthfully one key element of such a theoretically incentive compatible framing is that the hypothetical decision rule specified in the survey instrument is understood to be a majority rule rather than the efficiency rule typically used in cost benefit analysis we conducted field experiments in germany and switzerland to test if a referendum framing as suggested by green et al is effective in reducing strategic misrepresentation in a contingent valuation setting we did not find the expected effects of the framing treatments on stated willingness to pay or on individuals stated beliefs about the social choice context the results do not support hopes that a theoretically incentive compatible framing could be purposefully used to invoke the specific beliefs about the linkage between responses and policy implementation that would make stated preference questions incentive compatible

despairing over disparities explaining the difference between willingness to pay and willingness to accept this paper examines the three major explanations for the disparity between willingness to pay wtp and willingness to accept wta observed in contingent value surveys and laboratory experiments a belief that the results must be biased in some fashion hanemann s 1991 substitutes hypothesis and the loss aversion model proposed by tversky and kahneman 1991 starting from the assumption that individuals make utility maximizing choices we develop structural equations that yield parametric tests of the hypotheses within a single non experimental framework the approach is flexible enough to incorporate a variety of functional form and distributional assumptions and can be applied to either data from either open ended bids or dichotomous choice questions the usefulness of the approach is demonstrated using data from a survey that asked both wtp and wta questions the results provide weak support for loss aversion

contingent valuation theoretical advances and empirical tests since the noaa panel beyond a simple cost effectiveness role and for many policy issues where all the goods or impacts at issue are not readily priced in the market the relevance of economics depends to a large degree on the ability to use contingent valuation cv and other closely related stated preference approaches the government s use of cv as a tool to place a monetary value on damages from the exxon valdez oil spill brought forth strong industry objections to the use of cv in response the national oceanic and atmospheric administration noaa one of the trustee agencies in the exxon valdez case commissioned a blue ribbon panel chaired by kenneth arrow and robert solow to review the use of cv in natural resource damage assessment proceedings the panel s report arrow et al and transmittal letter to the noaa general counsel concluded cv studies can produce estimates reliable enough to be the starting point for a judicial or administrative determination of nat

evaluating the validity of the dichotomous choice question format in contingent valuation hypothetical and actual cash willingness to pay wtp for an art print were elicited with dichotomous choice and open ended question formats comparing hypothetical and actual dichotomous choice responses using both a likelihood ratio test and the method of convolutions suggests we reject equality at the 0 05 but not the 0 01 level hypothetical wtp was roughly two times actual wtp with the dichotomous choice format there were no significant differences between the open ended and dichotomous choice question formats when both were used to estimate hypothetical wtp or both used to estimate actual wtp

a comparison of contingent valuation method and random utility model estimates of the value of avoiding reductions in king mackerel bag limits this paper estimates the value of king mackerel bag limit changes with both stated and revealed preference methods the 1997 marine recreational fishery statistical survey allows estimation of the value of avoiding bag limit reductions with the random utility model and the contingent valuation method using the contingent valuation method the willingness to pay to avoid a one fish reduction in the bag limit is 2 45 per year using the random utility model the willingness to pay to avoid a one fish reduction in the bag limit is 2 24 per trip and 7 71 for a two month time period considering several methodological issues the difference in willingness to pay between the stated and revealed preference methods is in the expected direction

valuing public goods discrete versus continuous contingent valuation responses independent applications of open ended and dichotomous choice formats are compared using tests of means estimating joint likelihood functions and nonparametric tests of distributions the null hypothesis of no difference in the open ended and dichotomous choice estimates of central tendency cannot be rejected for two out of three data sets while estimated standard deviations are significantly different for all three data sets in addition actual dichotomous choice means and standard deviations exceed those from comparable synthetic dichotomous choice data sets suggesting either open ended questions underestimate values or dichotomous choice bid structures may lead to systematic overestimates

evaluating the effect of alternative risk communication devices on willingness to pay results from a dichotomous choice contingent valuation experiment two versions of a contingent valuation questionnaire that differ only in the device used to communicate risks from hazardous waste were sent to california households both risk communication devices provide wtp functions which vary in a statistically significant fashion with the absolute risk reduction however these empirical results also demonstrate that different risk communication devices produce statistically different logit equations and hence estimates of willingness to pay wtp for reductions in exposure to hazardous waste the pros and cons of using each risk communication device in cvm surveys is also discussed

a preliminary analysis of texas ranchers willingness to participate in a brush control cost sharing program to improve off site water yields abstract brush cover of 30 is estimated to be economically optimal for ranches on the edwards plateau texas this contrasts with a regional objective to increase off site water yield which is maximized if brush cover is removed survey research was conducted to assess ranchers willingness to enter a 10 year easement contract to clear brush to 3 for a fixed cost share payment to offset their opportunity costs of participation sixty six percent of the 119 ranchers surveyed were willing to enroll ranch size income from livestock and deer hunting enterprises and perceptions about brush control costs were important explanatory variables in statistical analysis using probit and cragg models

does realism matter in contingent valuation surveys the importance of stressing the realism or policy relevance of a contingent valuation cv survey is commonly recognized by cv researchers this paper focuses on the relationship between the probability that a subject s response will result in real consequences and the subject s accurate reporting of willingness to pay results from experiments support the argument that efforts to make contingent valuation surveys real are important however our results also suggest that the connection between the survey and the likelihood of a payment must be rather powerful before surveys generate accurate reporting of willingness to pay for a public good

estimating the wetland rental fee a case study involving a taiwan wetland wetlands provide many functions that are both economic and recreational and are valuable in terms of their ecological diversity while at the same time being nonmarket value products the purpose of this study is to estimate the optimal wetland rental through estimations of both the demand and supply functions in relation to wetland the wetland supply function is directly estimated based on the data provided by the owners of the wetland while the estimation of the wetland input demand function involves using the bootstrapping and contingent visitation approaches such estimation approaches could also be applied to other nonmarket value products that give rise to environmental externalities the estimation of rental fee could provide a long term leasing contract that gives the landlord with a particular rent to lease their lands to support a wetland eco tourism park to maintain wetland for substantial management several environmental management policy implications are also addressed

valuing the recreational benefits from the creation of nature reserves in irish forests abstract data from a large scale contingent valuation study are used to investigate the effects of forest attributes on willingness to pay for forest recreation in ireland in particular the presence of a nature reserve in the forest is found to significantly increase the visitors willingness to pay a random utility model is used to estimate the welfare change associated with the creation of nature reserves in all the irish forests currently without one the yearly impact on visitors economic welfare of new nature reserves approaches half a million pounds per annum exclusive of non recreational values

measuring the environmental cost of hypocrisy this paper provides an example of how to estimate the marginal environmental cost of hypocrisy using revealed behavior and self identification survey responses from coffee drinkers regarding their use of cardboard and plastic i e non reusable cups coffee shops provide a convenient microcosm for assessing the impact of hypocritical behavior because of 1 readily available cheap substitutes i e reusable coffee cups 2 a relatively accurate estimate of the environmental in particular carbon cost associated with using non reusable cups and 3 the ability to delineate hypocritical behavior by observing a choice with relatively few potential confounding factors hypocritical behavior is measured as a geometric mean of how often an individual takes coffee in a non reusable cup and the degree to which the individual self identifies as being concerned about his environmental footprint all else equal the more often a person takes his coffee in a non reusable cup and the greater the degree to which he self identifies as being concerned about his footprint the greater the individual s hypocrisy score controlling for other attitudinal and demographic characteristics including self identified awareness of environmental issues and willingness to pay for the convenience of using a non reusable cup we are able to determine the marginal effect of an individual s hypocrisy score on the environmental cost associated with the use of non reusable coffee cups

preference uncertainty in non market valuation a fuzzy approach in this article we consider uncertain preferences for non market goods but we move away from a probabilistic representation of uncertainty and propose the use of fuzzy contingent valuation we assume that a decision maker never fully knows her own utility function and we treat utility as a fuzzy number the methodology is illustrated using data on forest valuation in sweden fuzzy contingent valuation provides estimates of resource value in the form of a fuzzy number and includes estimates obtained using a standard probabilistic approach