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A comparative study of environmental amenity valuations

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  • Mordechai Shechter

Abstract

The paper reports on a comparative study of direct and indirect approaches to valuing environmental amenities (i.e., public goods), specifically, air quality in terms of its human health effects. The application of three indirect valuation methods (via market goods) is reported here: the health production method, a consumer preferences (for nonmarket goods) model, and the cost of illness method. The first and second methods are (economic) behavior-based approaches where willingness to pay for an environmental good is derived by exploiting relationships in consumption between the public good and market good(s). The third method is based on a physical relationship—a dose-response function—between the environmental good and health. The direct valuation approach encompassed three contingent valuation elicitation formats: open-ended, modified iterative bidding game, and referenda-style binary choice. The application of all four methods was based on data from a survey of a large, stratified sample of households from the Haifa metropolitan area in northern Israel. The estimates of welfare change derived by the various methods are discussed and compared. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1991

Suggested Citation

  • Mordechai Shechter, 1991. "A comparative study of environmental amenity valuations," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 1(2), pages 129-155, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:1:y:1991:i:2:p:129-155
    DOI: 10.1007/BF00310015
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    Cited by:

    1. Andri Brenner, 2021. "The Social Power of Spillover Effects: Educating Against Environmental Externalities," CEPA Discussion Papers 35, Center for Economic Policy Analysis.
    2. Kosz, Michael, 1996. "Valuing riverside wetlands: the case of the "Donau-Auen" national park," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 109-127, February.
    3. V. Smith & Ju Huang, 1993. "Hedonic models and air pollution: Twenty-five years and counting," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 3(4), pages 381-394, August.
    4. Richard T. Carson & Nicholas E. Flores & Kerry M. Martin & Jennifer L. Wright, 1996. "Contingent Valuation and Revealed Preference Methodologies: Comparing the Estimates for Quasi-Public Goods," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 72(1), pages 80-99.
    5. Nir Becker & Mira Baron & Mordechai Shechter, 1993. "Economic instruments for emission abatement under appreciable technological indivisibilities," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 3(3), pages 263-284, June.
    6. Pierre Thomas Léger, 2001. "Willingness to Pay for Improvements in Air Quality," Cahiers de recherche 01-02, HEC Montréal, Institut d'économie appliquée.
    7. Eleftherios Giovanis & Oznur Ozdamar, 2016. "The impact of air pollution on health problems in Britain," International Journal of Sustainable Economy, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 8(2), pages 163-186.
    8. Elise H. Golan & Mordechai Shechter, 1993. "Contingent Valuation of Supplemental Health Care in Israel," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 13(4), pages 302-310, December.
    9. Anne Rozan, 2001. "How to measure health costs induced by air pollution?," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 137(I), pages 103-116, March.
    10. F. Butter & H. Verbruggen, 1994. "Measuring the trade-off between economic growth and a clean environment," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 4(2), pages 187-208, April.
    11. Bente Halvorsen, 2000. "Comparing Ranking and Contingent Valuation for Valuing Human Lives, Applying Nested and Non-Nested Logit Models," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 17(1), pages 1-19, September.
    12. Becker, Nir & Shechter, Mordechai, 1996. "Decentralized economic incentives under technological indivisibilities: a cooperative game approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 9-20, April.

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