Title: Valuing the environment: Methods
1Valuing the environment Methods
2ex ante vs. ex post
- ex ante valuation desirability of proposed
action - ex post analysis judge either the success or the
damage done by implemented actions
3types of values / total WTP
- use direct use of resource
- fish / timber harvested / water extracted
- option
- can use it in the future
- nonuse
- preserving something will never use
- e.g., existence value
- TWP use option nonuse
4classifying valuation methods
Methods Revealed pref Stated pref
Direct market price contingent valuation
Indirect travel cost attribute-based models
hedonic property conjoint analysis
hedonic wage choice experiments
avoidance expenditures contingent ranking
5revealed preference
- based on actual observable choices
- actual resource values can be inferred
- how much did fisherman lose from oil spill?
- how much did catch decline?
- what is value of lost consumer surplus? (area
under demand curve) market price
6classifying valuation methods
Methods Revealed pref Stated pref
Direct market price contingent valuation
Indirect travel cost attribute-based models
hedonic property conjoint analysis
hedonic wage choice experiments
avoidance expenditures contingent ranking
7stated preference
- used when value is not directly observable
- value of northern spotted owl
- survey respondents for WTP to preserve this
species contingent valuation
8contingent valuation (direct, stated)
- major concern is survey bias
- strategic bias
- to influence an outcome
- information bias
- little or no experience
- starting point bias
- depends on definition of range
- hypothetical bias
- contrived set of choices (no consequences)
9classifying valuation methods
Methods Revealed pref Stated pref
Direct market price contingent valuation
Indirect travel cost attribute-based models
hedonic property conjoint analysis
hedonic wage choice experiments
avoidance expenditures contingent ranking
10travel cost (indirect / revealed)
- infer the value of recreational resource using
info on how much visitors spent getting to a site - construct demand curve for wtp for visitor day
- How far did they travel
- Entrance fee
- Account for different stops, etc.
11classifying valuation methods
Methods Revealed pref Stated pref
Direct market price contingent valuation
Indirect travel cost attribute-based models
hedonic property conjoint analysis
hedonic wage choice experiments
avoidance expenditures contingent ranking
12hedonic property value(indirect / revealed)
- use multiple regression analysis to tease out
environmental component of value - use housing prices and break price into
components ( bedrooms, baths, lot size, crime
rates, school quality, air quality, etc) - measure marginal wtp for discrete changes in each
attribute - coqui frogs as a form of noise pollution
13classifying valuation methods
Methods Revealed pref Stated pref
Direct market price contingent valuation
Indirect travel cost attribute-based models
hedonic property conjoint analysis
hedonic wage choice experiments
avoidance expenditures contingent ranking
14hedonic wage(indirect / revealed)
- similar idea, except isolate component of wage
that serves to compensate workers in risky
occupations for taking on the risk - high risk gt high wage
- Tobacco CEOs
15classifying valuation methods
Methods Revealed pref Stated pref
Direct market price contingent valuation
Indirect travel cost attribute-based models
hedonic property conjoint analysis
hedonic wage choice experiments
avoidance expenditures contingent ranking
16averting / defensive expenditures (indirect /
revealed)
- those designed to reduce damage caused by
pollution by taking averting / defense action - air purifiers / bottled water
- air conditioners to drown out coqui calls?
- lower bound estimate
17classifying valuation methods
Methods Revealed pref Stated pref
Direct market price contingent valuation
Indirect travel cost attribute-based models
hedonic property conjoint analysis
hedonic wage choice experiments
avoidance expenditures contingent ranking
18attribute based models(indirect / stated)
- useful when project options have multiple levels
of different attributes - survey based, but choosing different states of
the world - each state of the world has set of attributes and
a price
19conjoint analysishow to manage a forest?
20conjoint analysis sample questionnaire
21benefit transfer
- transfers existing benefit estimates in new study
- used when gathering primary data too expensive /
too little time - make sure
- services being valued are comparable
- relevant population is comparable
- if not, are you able to make justifiable
adjustments?
22issues in benefit estimation
- primary vs. secondary effects
- how far do you go?
- tangible vs. intangible
- sensitivity analysis for intangibles (dont
ignore)
23issues in cost estimation
- easier than benefits!
- approaches survey vs. engineering
- survey ask how much
- engineering catalog possible technologies and
estimate cost of purchasing and implementing them - combined approach often best
24expected value
- much scientific uncertainty in future costs
- e.g., climate change, arrival of brown tree
snakes - assess likelihood of possible outcomes (assign
probabilities) - expected present value of net benefits
25cost-effectiveness analysis
- if bca unavailable or not reliable
- set a policy target on some other basis than
benefits and costs - max acceptable pollution level?
- critical number of species to preserve?
- cost effectiveness analysis finds lowest cost
means of accomplishing objective
26impact analysis
- if both bca and cost effectiveness not possible
- attempts to quantify consequences of various
actions - makes no attempt to convert all of consequences
into - not necessarily optimal
- leaves much up to policymaker