Systematic Variation in Willingness to Pay for Aquatic Resource Improvements and Implications for Benefit Transfer: A Meta‐Analysis

Abstract

"Researchers are increasingly considering benefit transfer approaches that allow welfare measures to be adjusted for characteristics of the policy context. The validity and reliability of such adjustments, however, depends on the presence of systematic variation in underlying WTP. This paper describes a meta-analysis conducted to identify systematic components of WTP for aquatic resource improvements. Model results reveal systematic patterns in WTP unapparent from stated preference models considered in isolation, and suggest that observable attributes account for a substantial proportion of the variance in WTP estimates across studies. The analysis also exposes challenges faced in development, estimation, and interpretation of meta-models for benefit transfer and welfare guidance. These challenges remain salient even in cases where the statistical performance of meta-models is satisfactory." Copyright 2005 Canadian Agricultural Economics Society.

The Value of Forest Conservation for Water Quality Protection

“…Other economic valuation studies that measure WTP to protect water quality propose the use of nonspecific "environmental programs" and do not disclose if the program intends to use specific forest conservation tools [27,32,35,[43][44][45][46][47]. These studies focus on valuing the benefits or outcomes of resource protection and WTP to protect water quality independent of detailed information regarding the policy process or make vague references to policy implementation techniques [27,44,[47][48][49]. In a few cases the primary purpose of a valuation study is not to directly provide policy makers with information on measures of discrete welfare outcomes to different management alternatives, but to empirically test different stated preference methods or the effect of biophysical factors on WTP [50,51].…”

Valuing water quality improvements in the United States using meta-analysis: Is the glass half-full or half-empty for national policy analysis?

“…Although it has evolved primarily in health sciences research, meta-analysis is increasingly being applied in economics (Stanley, 2001), including nonmarket valuation research (Smith and Pattanayak, 2002). Recently, Johnston et al (2003Johnston et al ( , 2005) also conducted meta-analyses involving value G. Van Houtven et al / Resource and Energy Economics 29 (2007) 206-228 207 estimates for surface water quality improvements. Although similar in several respects to our analysis, the two meta-analyses focus on water quality changes that specifically involve improvements in fish habitat and Johnston et al (2003) focuses mainly on nonuse value estimates.…”

Valuing preferences over stormwater management outcomes including improved hydrologic function

“…[8] Another line of work has estimated the value of surface water quality in rivers and streams [e.g., Carson and Mitchell, 1993;Van Houtven et al, 2007;Johnston et al, 2005;Whitehead, 2006] yet only a little of that research has been in urban or urbanizing areas [Bateman et al, 2006]. Some research has studied the values people place on dimensions of environmental quality in freshwater systems that are more complex than pollution levels [Loomis et al, 2000;Wilson and Carpenter, 1999].…”

“…However, a new generation of decentralized stormwater solutions can produce important ancillary environmental benefits. Previous research has estimated values for surface water quality [Carson and Mitchell, 1993;Van Houtven et al, 2007;Johnston et al, 2005] and for flood reduction from stormwater management [Bin and Polasky, 2004;Zhai et al, 2006Zhai et al, , 2007, but no estimates exist for the values of some of the other environmental benefits of alternative approaches to stormwater control. This paper fills that gap by using a choice experiment survey of households in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, to estimate the values of multiple attributes of stormwater management outcomes.…”