Cost-benefit analysis of environmental projects often requires economic valuation procedures that are time-consuming and costly. Therefore, the wish to short-cut these procedures comes naturally, e.g. using the so-called "benefit transfer". This method enables the researcher to use results from previous studies to calculate expected benefits of a planned project. In this paper we discuss the chances and limits of this approach from theoretical and empirical points of view. Starting from the welfare theoretical fundamentals of economic valuation we show that the road to any empirical measure is already marked by various assumptions. Taking a detailed look at the techniques of benefit transfers the paper arrives at recommendations for future benefit transfer studies. Copyright Verein fü Socialpolitik und Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2002
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
file. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.