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Cheaper electricity or a better river? Estimating fluvial ecosystem value in Southern France

Author

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  • Anna Créti

    (X-DEP-ECO - Département d'Économie de l'École Polytechnique - X - École polytechnique, LEDA-CGEMP - Centre de Géopolitique de l’Energie et des Matières Premières - LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Federico Pontoni

    (EconomiX - EconomiX - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

In the next years, France will renew a consistent share of hydroelectric concessions, among which we find those insisting on the Aspe and its tributaries (for a total of almost 100 MW). Beauty contests will take place, where bidders will present offers for technical and environmental improvements, as well as a revenue sharing percentage for Local Authorities. This framework generates a potential trade-off between revenue-sharing and environmental improvement. Our work investigates this trade-off by means of a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to estimate people's preferences. The experiment has been conducted on a representative sample living in the Aspe valley. In our DCE, we translate the revenue sharing in an immediate rebate in the electricity bill. Respondents could choose higher rebates and lower ecosystem improvements or lower (or no) rebate and higher ecosystem amelioration. According to the experiment results, the highest total willingness to pay (WTP) is above € 144 per household and per year. Moreover, people's marginal WTP for a satisfactory fish stock reaches 250 €/year, that is three times the maximum rebate that was offered. Finally, all environmental attributes are considered as significant and worth a monetary effort. Therefore, hydroelectric concession bidders should give clear priority to environmental aspects.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Créti & Federico Pontoni, 2014. "Cheaper electricity or a better river? Estimating fluvial ecosystem value in Southern France," Working Papers hal-00998614, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00998614
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-00998614
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Pascal da Costa & Daniel Hernandez, 2019. "The Economic Value of Ecosystem Conservation: A Discrete Choice Experiment at the Taravo River Basin in Corsica," Working Papers hal-01971681, HAL.
    2. Venus, Terese E. & Sauer, Johannes, 2022. "Certainty pays off: The public's value of environmental monitoring," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).

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    Keywords

    Water Framework Directive; Choice Experiment; Hydropower;
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