This policy briefing series communicates the findings from nine workshops and three plenary meetings under the EVE programme. These showed the diversity of research currently being undertaken in the area of environmental values and their policy expression. The type of information relevant to the decision process extends from ecological functioning to moral values.
This volume offers a snapshot of the research that is ongoing in the area of value transfer. It provides relevant input for increasing the quality of cost-benefit analyses of projects with environmental and health impacts. The volume includes papers by some of the most influential authors in the area and covers the latest developments in the field.
This book provides a comprehensive review of environmental benefit transfer methods, issues and challenges, covering topics relevant to researchers and practitioners. Early chapters provide accessible introductory materials suitable for non-economists. These chapters also detail how benefit transfer is used within the policy process. Later chapters cover more advanced topics suited to valuation researchers, graduate students and those with similar knowledge of economic and statistical theory and methods. This book provides the most complete coverage of environmental benefit transfer methods available in a single location. The book targets a wide audience, including undergraduate and graduate students, practitioners in economics and other disciplines looking for a one-stop handbook covering benefit transfer topics and those who wish to apply or evaluate benefit transfer methods. It is designed for those both with and without training in economics
The purpose of this guidance manual is to show how the value of ecosystem services can be estimated and incorporated into decision making. Specifically, it is designed to help a broad audience of conservation managers, government officials, private sector managers, NGOs, and statisticians to understand the available information on the values of ecosystem services and how this information can be transferred to inform the decisions that they make. It explains why you would undertake a study, who should be involved, how to implement the study and how to use the results. The development of this guidance manual was funded by the United Nations Environment Programme.
Environmental quality is one of the most important issues faced by contemporary urban and regional policy. Amenities such as access to the natural environment, attractive neighbourhood characteristics and high quality public goods and services, play a direct role in determining where people choose to live and how much they are willing to do so. Likewise, negative environmental conditions, such as contamination, influence the real estate markets and the 'value' of a region. Increasingly, regions become winners or losers based on the quality of life they offer their inhabitants. Bringing together a team of leading scholars, this book addresses the issues of environmental valuation, answering questions such as: What kinds of features matter? How large of an affect do they have? How do they affect the spatial distribution of the population? And how should the value that people place on their environment affect urban and regional policy?
Benefit transfer is the practice of estimating economic values at a target site by utilizing the results of existing studies for different sites. This text assesses the validity of benefit transfer using choice modeling in contrast to the traditional focus of transferring results from contingent valuation and travel cost models.
The 2004 5 edition of this annual publication provides again a first-rate compilation of various major topics in environmental and resource economics written by the leading specialists in the field. . . The contributions are an exciting and inspiring resource for the development of further research, and this book should be recommended to students and researchers in environmental and resource economics as well as social science. Katrin Daedlow, Environmental Politics As every year, Tom Tietenberg and Henk Folmer have edited The International Yearbook of Environmental and Resource Economics. . . This book, and indeed the whole collection, are tremendously useful as basic tools for professionals in research, teaching and policy making. Michel Griffon, Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture This major annual publication provides a state-of-the-art survey of contemporary research on environmental and resource economics by some of the leading experts in the field. The critical issues addressed in this year s volume include: contingent valuation environmental policy, technological change and economic growth land use decisions and policy sustainability indicators value transfer and environmental policy joint implementation in climate change policy environmentally harmful subsidies.
The Economic Valuation of the Environment and Public Policy fills an important gap in economic literature by providing a comprehensive account of hedonic pricing and its use in valuation of environmental amenities. . . . It should be invaluable to anyone contemplating undertaking a hedonic pricing study of an environmental amenity, as it contains practical advice on a myriad of modeling issues. Likewise, it should be of value to anyone wishing to thoroughly understand and critique the results of a hedonic pricing exercise. Richard T. Carson, Environment I appreciate this book s blend between theory and applications. It contains an informative review of the development of the theory of the hedonic price technique as well as an insightful analysis of the econometrics of the approach. Noboru Hidano has a gift for breaking down the difficult theoretical and econometric problems into simple and manageable proportions. Per-Olov Johansson, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden The importance of the hedonic valuation approach in public policy evaluation and environmental value estimation is now widely accepted. This book is especially designed to illustrate the basic assumptions of the hedonic approach and highlight the strengths and weaknesses associated with it. Combining rigorous theoretical analysis, detailed empirical studies and an extensive history of hedonic valuation, the book is both a good introductory text to the field and a precise yet comprehensive aid for professionals and practitioners alike. Some of the book s special features include: a comprehensive explanation of the basic theorem extensive discussions on the utility of the approach in the evaluation of both small-scale and large-scale projects detailed explanations of how the approach can best be applied to cost benefit analysis an examination of the applicability of the hedonic method by comparing estimated values for various environmental and public services an illustration of public policy and environmental valuation using readily-understood examples. The Economic Valuation of the Environment and Public Policy will be essential reading for students of environmental and ecological economics, environmental science and technology specialists, and all those who are interested in the evaluation of public sector projects.
An impressive piece of work that deserves to be on every European agricultural economist s bookshelf. Jean-Christophe Bureau, European Review of Agricultural Economics This is an excellent text that could be used in specialist academic courses in environmental and natural resource economics, ecological economics and cost benefit analysis, as well as in interdisciplinary courses in public policy, planning and environmental management. David James, Australasian Journal of Environmental Management Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) is one of the most useful tools of applied economics for the social appraisal of public projects and government policies. Nick Hanley and Edward Barbier show how CBA can be applied to environmental policy choice and environmental resource management. They cover the conceptual underpinnings of CBA, practical methods for applying CBA, and a wide range of case study applications from Europe, North America and developing countries. Issues such as the value of ecosystem services and the special problems posed for CBA by environmental management are brought into close focus. The textbook is aimed at students on inter-disciplinary courses as well as those studying environmental economics, welfare economics and public policy. It will also be of interest to people in the policy community, NGOs and consultancy sectors.
Over the last decade, economists have increasingly recognized the role of meta-analysis and value transfer in synthesizing knowledge and efficiently exploiting the existing pool of knowledge. Comparative Environmental Economic Assessment explores the potential significance of using these techniques, particularly in environmental economics. Both meta-analysis and value transfer constitute major research tools which efficiently use knowledge previously acquired from other studies. The book focuses on the potential role and usefulness of these tools in environmental economic research, and goes on to address their validity, relevance and applicability. A future agenda for research is also illustrated.
