Conference Agenda

Conventional economic valuation frequently fails to address the complexity associated with the motivations underlying preferences for complex environmental goods. We conducted a discrete choice experiment in order to explore public preferences for (soil-based) ecosystem services. To investigate preference heterogeneity, we used a latent class model and identified six latent classes. Subsequently, we explored the motivations underlying the heterogeneous preferences. Notably, we found differences in the motivations among the classes, e.g. with respect to individual utility versus societal fairness, but we also found a high relevance of non-individualistic, non-instrumental and/or weakly anthropocentric intrinsic considerations for the stated preferences across all six classes.

While there have been numerous studies on the right amount and style of information to provide in stated preference research, there is little research on how to ensure respondents process this information. Based on psychological research on the depth of information processing, this study investigates if closed-ended and open-ended quiz questions and coupling with feedback on the responses enhance the processing of survey information. For this, 2,401 respondents in a discrete choice experiment survey on urban gardens in three German cities are randomly assigned to six questionnaire versions differing in the types of questions shown before preference elicitation. We investigate differences in the time spent on the questions, voluntary retrieval of the information, recall of the information, and stated preferences. Results show that quiz questions can increase engagement with and recall of the information. Some of these effects are stronger for open-ended questions and questions with feedback. We do not find statistically significant differences in stated preferences. We derive recommendations how quiz questions can be used in stated preference questionnaires to ensure important information is recalled in the preference elicitation task.

This article develops an applied value of information (VOI) model to provide guidance on the optimal use of non-market valuation (NMV) to inform decisions. The model is illustrated for a case of decisions over a water-quality improvement project with both use and nonuse benefits and options for benefit estimation including stated preference (SP), revealed preference (RP) and benefit transfer methods implemented at varying degrees of best practice. Information on the anticipated accuracy of each valuation method is derived via an expert-elicitation process that provides anticipated likelihoods of alternative study outcomes conditional on a set of underlying true values. Results yield previously unavailable insight into the circumstances in which NMV should be applied to inform decisions and which methods are expected to provide the greatest net benefit. Results show that VOI is highly sensitive to the expected net benefits of the project under consideration; in some situations, studies can have immense value (e.g., millions of USD) but in others, their value for improved decision making is zero. Project scale (i.e., the stakes of the policy decision) and study cost are among important factors determining the optimal choice of NMV. Results also belie familiar narratives about the preferability of particular valuation methods, suggesting that common wisdom in the literature (e.g., that RP methods are preferred) may be misguided, at least in some contexts. Taken together, results suggest that blanket statements on the general need for NMV should be supplanted with targeted guidance that reflects circumstances in which these studies are expected to provide high VOI.

Invasive species present a difficult management problem of how to prioritize which species should be the target of management and how intensive this management should be to reduce their spread. This paper uses data from a stated choice experiment used to elicit the Norwegian population’s willingness-to-pay (WTP) to reduce the potential further spread west and south of the invasive Red King Crab (RKC) from its current range within the Barents Sea. This scenario reflects ongoing management challenges related to this invasive species in Norway. We examine how WTP for managing the RKC depends on whether the management activity is explicitly embedded within the need to manage other invasive species in Norway. Our results show that explicitly reminding respondents that they are only asked about the RKC leads to a downward shift in WTP. Importantly, this shift is only observed for the reduced spread attribute and not for the other environmental attributes, suggesting that the reminder is effective to reduce embedding. Our result is robust to model and utility function specifications.