European University Institute Library

Contingent valuation of environmental goods, a comprehensive critique, edited by Daniel McFadden, Kenneth Train

eng

Contingent valuation of environmental goods

electronic resource

dictionaries

984275775

edited by Daniel McFadden, Kenneth Train

Open Access e-Books

a comprehensive critique

Contingent valuation is a survey-based procedure that attempts to estimate how much households are willing to pay for specific programs that improve the environment or prevent environmental degradation. For decades, the method has been the center of debate regarding its reliability: does it really measure the value that people place on environmental changes? Bringing together leading voices in the field, this timely book tells a unified story about the interrelated features of contingent valuation and how those features affect its reliability. Through empirical analysis and review of past studies, the authors identify important deficiencies in the procedure, raising questions about the technique's continued use. Individual chapters investigate how respondents answer questions in contingent valuation surveys, with a particular focus on how the procedure's estimates change based on the costs that the researcher specifies, the payment mechanism, and the scope of the environmental improvement. Other issues covered include whether the survey respondents make trade-offs between the program costs and benefits; and whether corrections can be applied to account for any misunderstanding of the questions by respondents and for the hypothetical nature of the survey. This book will appeal to environmental economists and students in environmental and resource economics. Government staff at environmental agencies and survey researchers will benefit from the close analysis of previous applications.--, Provided by publisher

Introduction / Daniel McFadden and Kenneth Train -- 1. Response to cost prompts in stated preference valuation of environmental goods / Jim Burrows, Powell Dixon, and Hiu Man Chan -- 2. Fat tails and truncated bids in contingent valuation : an application to an endangered shorebird species / George Parsons and Kelley Myers -- 3. Inadequate response to frequency of payments in contingent valuation of environmental goods / Kelley Myers, George Parsons, and Kenneth Train -- 4. An adding/-up test on contingent valuations of river and lake quality / William Desvousges, Kristy Mathews, and Kenneth Train -- 5. Do contingent valuation estimates of willingness to pay for non-use environmental goods pass the scope test with adequacy? : a review of the evidence from empirical studies in the literature / Jim Burrows, Rebecca Newman, Jerry Genser, and Jeffrey Plewes -- 6. Stated preference methods and their applicability to environmental use and non-use valuations / Daniel McFadden -- 7. Some findings from further exploration of the "composite good" approach to contingent valuation / Michael Kemp, Edward Leamer, Jim Burrows, and Powell Dixon -- 8. Estimates from stated preference surveys when some respondents do not compare costs and benefits / Edward Leamer and Josh Lustig -- 9. Assessing the validity of stated preference data using follow-up questions / Kelley Myers, Doug MacNair, Ted Tomasi, and Jude Schneider -- 10. Hypothetical bias : a new meta-analysis / Harry Foster and Jim Burrows -- 11. Legal obstacles for contingent valuation methods in environmental litigation / Brian Israel, Jean Martin, Kelly Smith Fayne, and Lauren Daniel