A comparison of alternative contingent valuation elicitation treatments for the evaluation of complex environmental policy

Valuing biodiversity attributes: a choice experiment design

This study seeks to estimate household's willingness to pay for biodiversity conservation in Dachigam National Park, which houses the last viable population of Asiatic Black Bear and the Hangul (which is the only surviving sub-species of red deer in the world). A survey based on choice experiment method was carried out at Dachigam National Park, an area that is threatened by several anthropogenic pressures. A set of attributes, such as endangered species, national park area and research and education opportunities the park holds, have been selected to substantiate the analysis. In order to estimate willingness to pay (WTP), a monetary variable involving an increase in water rates was also incorporated. Willingness to pay for the selected attributes per household ranges from Rs. 109.48 to Rs. 138.48 for enhancing population of endangered species, Rs. 48.54 to Rs. 82.36 for improvement in park area and Rs. 67.21 to Rs. 101.35 for increasing research and education opportunities the park holds. Findings that the study present can be used as an indicator of economic importance of biological resources for their better management and conservation that can help in ensuring sustainable utilization of these natural resources.

How sustainable is government-sponsored desertification rehabilitation in China? Behavior of households to changes in environmental policies

This paper undertakes a direct, comprehensive assessment of the long-term sustainability of desertification rehabilitation in China under a plausible but worst case scenario where governmental interventions, in the form of payments for environmental services (PES), will cease. The analysis is based on household behavior as well as experimental data. Our econometric results highlight the main obstacles to the sustainability of rehabilitation programs subsequent to cessation of government intervention, including specific shortfalls in households’ preference for a free ride, budget constraints, attitudes, tolerance of and responsibility for desertification, and dissatisfaction with governmental actions. We conclude that desertification rehabilitation is not sustainable in China without continued governmental intervention. The results of this study are intended to support policy makers as they consider future directions for rehabilitation sustainability.

An assessment of household willingness to pay for curbside recycling: a comparison of payment card and referendum approaches

Curbside recycling is a tool that communities use to reduce the need for landfill space. This study provides contingent valuation estimates of household willingness to pay (WTP) to continue a curbside recycling program in the face of budget cuts. Comparisons of two forms of the contingent valuation method (CVM) are provided: a single bounded referendum and a payment card. Neither approach emerges as unambiguously superior. Response rates were virtually identical. Both approaches show that support for curbside recycling is highly sensitive to price. Regression results from the payment card provided a more thorough identification of socio-demographic variables associated with WTP than the referendum, but the explanatory power of the two regressions did not differ significantly. The referendum estimates of mean WTP exceed those from the payment card, although the disparities are less than those typically reported in the CVM literature. Local policy makers cited the CVM results as influencing their decisions regarding funding options for the future of the program, and seemed to appreciate the fact that the two approaches provided a fairly narrow range of estimates of WTP. In an era when more of the burden of financing of environmental programs is being shifted to the local level, use of CVM to estimate the WTP of consumers for highly disaggregated goods and services designed to achieve environmental improvement will likely become more relevant to local decision makers who are interested in understanding their constituents' views.