Valuing Environmental Preferences

Ian J. Bateman

ISBN 10: 0199248915 / ISBN 13: 9780199248919

Published by Oxford University Press, GB, 2001

About this Item

Just as individuals have preferences regarding the various goods and services they purchase every day, so they also hold preferences regrding public goods such as hose provided by the naural environment. However, unlike provate goods, environmental goods often cannot be valued by direct reference o any market price. Thsi amkes economic analysis of the costs and benefits of environmental change problematic. Over the past few decades a number of methods have developed to address this problem by attempting to value environmental preferences. Principal among hese has been the contingent valuation (CV) method which uses surveys to ask individuals how much they would be willing to pay or willing to accept in compensation for gains and losses of environmental goods. The period from the mid-1980s to the present day has seen a m,assive expansion in use of the CV method. From its originalroots int eh USA, through Europe and the developed world, the method has now reached worldwide application with a substantial proportion of current studies being undertaken in developing countries where environmental services are often the dominating determinant of everyday living standards. The method has simultaneously moved from the realm of pure academic speculation into the sphere of instiutional decision analysis. However, the past decade also witness a developing critique of the CV method with a number of commentators questioning the underlying validity of its dervied valuations. This volume, therefore, reflects a time of heated debate, as wellas from commentators who see it as an interesting experimental tool regardless of the question of absolute validity of estimates. The book embraces the theoritical, methodologicl, empirical, and institutional aspects of the current debate. It covers US, European , and developing country applications, and the institutional frameworks within which CV studies are applied.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780199248919

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Valuing Environmental Preferences
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, GB
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0199248915
• ISBN 13: 9780199248919
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 958 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This is a comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) which asks what people would be willing to pay for an environmental good or attribute, or willing to accept for its loss. CVM is currently central to the assessment of environmental damage and has been the subject of considerable debate, especially in the case of the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska. Aimed at specialists, this book contains specially commissioned papers from both sides of that debate, as well as from commentators who see it as an interesting experimental tool regardless of the question of absolute validity of estimates.

About the Author

Ian J. Bateman is Reader in Environmental Economics at the Centre for Social and Environmental Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE), in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia.
Kenneth G. Willis is Professor of Environmental Economics in the Department of Town and Country Planning at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.