Economic Valuation with Stated Preference Techniques A Manual

About this book

This manual offers a detailed, contemporary explanation of how to carry out economic valuation using stated preference techniques. It is relevant for the application of these techniques to all non-market goods and services including air and water quality; provision of public open space; health care that is not sold through private markets; risk reduction policies and investments not provided privately; provision of information as with the recorded heritage, the protection of cultural assets and so on. The resulting valuations can be used for a number of purposes including, but not limited to, demonstrating the importance of a good or service; cost-benefit analysis; setting priorities for environmental policy; design of economic instruments; green national/corporate accounting and natural resource damage assessment.

Contents

Part 1 The foundations of economic valuation: the uses of economic valuation; the nature of economic valuation and economic efficiency; economic valuation and other values; economic valuation when there are no markets; economic valuation and the demand curve; willingness to pay and willingness to accept; total economic value and aggregation; total economic value; aggregating across individuals - stakeholder analysis; aggregating across individuals - distributional adjustments; aggregation over time; stated preferences and public participation. Part 2 Commissioning a stated preference study: defining the context; is economic valuation necessary and credible?; what alternative and appropriate procedures are available?; how credible will the results be?; the cost of the study; "mixed" valuation and non-valuation approaches; choosing between economic valuation techniques; use and non-use values; attributes and total values; hard versus soft data; contexts where given techniques cannot be applied; other considerations; commissioning a valuation study - a checklist; social goals and CBA; the required level of accuracy; the issue of "standing"; issues with stated preference techniques; using expert advice; assessing the consultants; a typical workplan for a stated preference study. Part 3 Population, sample and survey mode: defining the target population; the need for and the importance of sampling; the sampling frame; choosing the sample; non-probabilistic design; probabilistic design; choosing the survey mode; choosing the sample size. Part 4 Designing a contingent valuation questionnaire: useful lessons from other disciplines; the stages of designing a CV questionnaire; what is the policy change being valued?; constructing the valuation scenario; eliciting monetary values; debriefing and follow-up questions; attitudes, opinions, knowledge and uses; demographics; questionnaire structure; pre-testing; the main survey. Part 5 Contingent valuation - analyzing the results: contingent valuation data sets; data on WTP; missing data on WTP; data on determinants of WTP; missing data on household characteristics; specification of the bid function; the theoretical model; the analyst's model -the utility difference approach; the analyst's model - the bid function approach; which are better - utility difference models or bid function models?; estimating mean and median WTP; models for testing the validity of WTP values; models for benefits transfer exercises; conclusions. Part 6 Designing a choice modelling questionnaire: what is choice modelling?; main CM approaches; choice experiments; contingent ranking; contingent rating; paired comparisons; common design stages; selection of attributes; assignment of levels; choice of experimental design; construction of choice sets; measurement of preferences; advantages and disadvantages of choice experiments relative to other economic valuation techniques; advantages; disadvantages; do choice modelling approaches solve a

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