Australasian environmental economics: contributions, conflicts and ‘cop‐outs’*

Abstract

Australian and New Zealand environmental economists have played a significant role in the development of concepts and their application across three fields within their subdiscipline: non-market valuation, institutional economics and bioeconomic modelling. These contributions have been spurred on by debates within and outside the discipline. Much of the controversy has centred on the validity of valuations generated through the application of stated preference methods such as contingent valuation. Suggestions to overcome some shortcomings in the work of environmental economists include the commissioning of a sequence of non-market valuation studies to fill existing gaps to improve the potential for benefit transfer.

The evolution of Australia's natural resource management programs: Towards improved targeting and evaluation of investments

“…Some argue for increased use of monetary valuation techniques such as choice modelling so that intangible environmental goods may be valued in dollar units (Bennet, 2005). Others suggest that many intangible environmental and social goods cannot be measured in dollar units and decisions can, instead, be informed through non-monetary valuation metrics (Hajkowicz, 2007c).…”

For the Greater Good? A Test for Strategic Bias in Group Environmental Decisions

“…Bennet (2005) refers to this as "rent seeking" behaviour. The issue of subjectivity of decision maker weights in MCA, and other decision models, has received much attention (Belton 2005).…”

Evaluating water quality investments using cost utility analysis

“…The validity and reliability of NMV continues to be debated within the field of economics with advocates (Bennett, 2005) and critics (Ludwig, 2000). The debate is far from consensus.…”