Valuing Environmental Preferences - Couverture rigide

Bateman, Ian

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0198288530 ISBN 13 : 9780198288534

Editeur : Clarendon Press, 1998

Synopsis

The book focuses on one particular set of techniques for valuing the environment, namely the questionnaire-based 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. Though competing methods of environmental valuation exist, CVM is currently central to the assessment of environmental damage and has been the subject of considerable debate. Contingent valuation evolved as a method to quantify the benefits of non-marketed environmental goods and attributes so that they could be entered directly in benefit This volume has been written at a time of heated debate over the CV method. It contains specially written 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. The book embraces the theoretical, methodological, empirical, and institutional aspects of the current debate. It covers US, European, and developing country applications, and the institutional frameworks within which CVM studies are applied. Questionnaries are reprinted in the case study chapters where appropriate, to allow evaluation of the questionnaire and to complete the illustration of the methodological issues.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

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.

Revue de presse

This is a book that should be on the shelves of anyone with an interest in environmental valuation and of CV in particular. Whilst it is not a CV handbook on 'best practice', it is an invaluable source of reference on a whole range of issues concerning the use of the CV method. (Journal of Environmental Planning and Management)

The case studies are particularly informative and well balanced. This book is extremely attractively priced and should find a place on the shelves of many libraries and individuals who have an interest/concern in their attempts to evaluate the many and growing environmental problems facing our planet in the 21st century. (International Journal of Environmental Studies)

Very interesting multi-author truly international book ... very well referenced ... good index. (International Journal of Environmental Studies)

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Clarendon Press
• Date d'édition: 1998
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0198288530
• ISBN 13: 9780198288534
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 668
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: Ufficio Anagrafiche Messaggerie; ufficio.anagrafiche@meli.it; ; Via Verdi, 8; Assago Milano; 20090; Italie