Economic Valuation Of Natural Resources

Non-market valuation has become a broadly accepted and widely practiced means of measuring the economic values of the environment and natural resources. In this book, the authors provide a guide to the statistical and econometric practices that economists employ in estimating non-market values. The authors develop the econometric models that underlie the basic methods: contingent valuation, travel cost models, random utility models and hedonic models. They analyze the measurement of non-market values as a procedure with two steps: the estimation of parameters of demand and preference functions and the calculation of benefits from the estimated models. Each of the models is carefully developed from the preference function to the behavioral or response function that researchers observe. The models are then illustrated with datasets that characterize the kinds of data researchers typically deal with. The real world data and clarity of writing in this book will appeal to environmental economists, students, researchers and practitioners in multilateral banks and government agencies.

Allocation of natural resources has become a prominent concern at the local, state, and federal level. Competing uses for increasingly scarce resources are requiring that the relative values of those uses be investigated. Although many types of value are important in decision making, this book is concerned with the economic value of natural resources. Economic values for certain natural resources are readily observable in markets. For others, however, market prices are not available, and estimates of value must be made through nonmarket valuation techniques. The progress that has been made in improving the theory, methods, and applications of these techniques has been remarkable. Along with the progress, however, come new problems that must be addressed. The chapters presented in this volume are a collection of examples of both progress and problems.

Allocation of natural resources has become a prominent concern at the local, state, and federal level. Competing uses for increasingly scarce resources are requiring that the relative values of those uses be investigated. Although many types of value are important in decision making, this book is concerned with the economic value of natural resources. Economic values for certain natural resources are readily observable in markets. For others, however, market prices are not available, and estimates of value must be made through nonmarket valuation techniques. The progress that has been made in improving the theory, methods, and applications of these techniques has been remarkable. Along with the progress, however, come new problems that must be addressed. The chapters presented in this volume are a collection of examples of both progress and problems.

Economic valuation can help improve decisions about protecting the environment . By inputing values to unpriced goods, it can make public choices more cost-efficient and thus allow limited public income to be optimally spent.

The purpose of this report is to produce a review on water resource valuation issues and techniques specifically for the appraisal and negotiation of raw (as opposed to bulk or retail) water resource allocation for agricultural development projects. The review considers raw water in naturally occurring watercourses, lakes, wetlands, soil and aquifers, taking an ecosystem function perspective at a catchment scale, and takes account of the demands from irrigated and rainfed agriculture. It is hoped that the review will have particular application to developing countries where agreed methods for reconciling competing uses are often absent, but nevertheless takes account of valuation approaches that have been made in post industrial economies.

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2013 im Fachbereich VWL - Umweltökonomie, , Veranstaltung: Environmental Economics, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Monetary valuation of environmental goods has by now become the subject of numerous economic books and articles. Interest in the topic seems to be increasing in the economics profession, and theoretical insight, methodological improvements and the numbers of empirical findings are expanding rapidly. The aim of such valuation is usually to incorporate environmental concerns into a cost-benefit analysis. Another purpose is to construct environmentally adjusted national income measures Environmental value estimates have also been combined with macroeconomic models, e.g. to estimate welfare effects of a climate treaty Further, estimated willingness to pay is now accepted in the USA as a basis for legal compensation claims for damages to natural resources caused by spill of hazardous substances (Nyborg, 1996) Valuation can simply be defined “as an attempt to put monetary values or to environmental goods and services or natural resources”. It is a key exercise in economic analysis and its results provide important information about values of environmental goods and services. This information can be used to influence decisions about wise use and conservation of forests and other ecosystems. The basic aim of valuation is to determine people’s preferences by gauging how much they are willing to pay (WTP) for given benefits or certain environmental attributes e.g. keep a forest ecosystem intact. In other words, valuation also tries to gauge how much worse off they would consider themselves to be as a result of changes in the state of the environment such as degradation of a forest. Economic valuation never refers to a stock, but only the change in a stock. If one speaks of the economic value of biodiversity, then one always means the economic value of a change of biodiversity. It is not a question of determining the ‘true’ value of biodiversity or ecosystems but valuing changes and comparing them with their alternatives, e.g. with a golf course vs without a golf course. Thus it is non-sense to ask “how much are the African National Parks worth?” A plausible question in this case would be: ‘WWF has proposed a new policy to prevent the huge losses of wildlife species from African National Parks. What is the monetary value of the benefits of this policy (i.e., the economic damages avoided)? Economists thus stress that the valuation should focus on changes rather than levels of biodiversity or ecosystem. [...]

There has been a lot of discussion among policymakers, particularly within the Clinton Administration, about how to make U.S. economic indicators, such as GNP, more accurately reflect the state of the environment. This book explores the major issues and controversies involved in incorporating natural resources and the environment into economic accounts. The first section of the volume, based largely on a three-day workshop of experts in the field, explains the possibilities and pitfalls in so-called "green" accounting. This is followed by a selection of nine individually authored papers, including one by Nobel prize winner Robert Solow, that probe scientific aspects of this issues in greater depth.