The aesthetic quality of water resources is often assumed to be valuable to society, yet few robust estimates of this value have been reported in the limnological literature. Because entire lakes and rivers are not bought and sold regularly, their aesthetic value cannot be determined by differences in market prices. Therefore, economically valid estimates must be determined by methods that estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for aesthetic value. Methods for and example results of an environmental valuation study to estimate local residents’ and visitors’ WTP for improved aesthetic quality in Clear Lake (Iowa, USA), a eutrophic, natural lake are presented. Both revealed preference and stated preference techniques for estimating value are considered. In the revealed preference application, WTP is inferred by comparing the number of times survey respondents planned to visit the lake given its current conditions with the number of times they would plan to visit if the lake’s water quality were improved. In the stated preference application, WTP is inferred by presenting survey respondents with a hypothetical ballot initiative offering improved water quality and resulting higher taxes associated, then estimating the highest tax bill at which the ballot initiative would have passed.
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
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Kenyon College, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number
0701.