Clive L. Spash

PREFERENCES, INFORMATION AND BIODIVERSITY PRESERVATION

This paper considers the nature of preferences for the preservation of biodiversity, and the extent to which individuals are well-informed about biodiversity. We present evidence that the elicitation of monetary bids to pay for biodiversity preservation, as required for cost-benefit analysis, fails as a measure of welfare changes due to the prevalence of preferences which neoclassical economics defines as lexicographic. That is, a significant proportion of individuals refuse to make trade-offs which require the substitution of biodiversity for other goods. In addition, we show that understanding of the biodiversity concept is extremely limited, raising concerns over a reliance on stated preferences, as revealed in contingent valuation studies, for decision-making on this issue. Results from two samples (students and the general public) are described.

Ecosystems, contingent valuation and ethics: the case of wetland re-creation

This paper addresses a current issue in environmental valuation, namely, the extent to which environmental preferences depart from the usual economic paradigm to incorporate some lexicographic elements. After a theoretical discussion the paper reviews attempts to explore this question empirically by supplementing contingent valuation analyses with an exploration of the motives behind willingness-to-pay responses, including zero bids and refusals to answer. This is followed by the presentation of new evidence investigating respondents willingness to pay for the creation of a wetland taken from 713 personal interviews of the British public.

The Brave New World of Carbon Trading

Human-induced climate change has become a prominent political issue, at both national and international levels, leading to the search for regulatory ‘solutions’. Emissions trading has risen in popularity to become the most broadly favoured government strategy. Carbon permits have then quickly been developed as a serious financial instrument in markets turning over billions of dollars a year. In this article, I show how the reality of permit market operation is far removed from the assumptions of economic theory and the promise of saving resources by efficiently allocating emission reductions. The pervasiveness of Greenhouse Gas emissions, strong uncertainty and complexity combine to prevent economists from substantiating their theoretical claims of cost-effectiveness. Corporate power is shown to be a major force affecting emissions market operation and design. The potential for manipulation to achieve financial gain, while showing little regard for environmental or social consequences, is evident as markets have extended internationally and via trading offsets. At the individual level, there is the potential for emissions trading to have undesirable ethical and psychological impacts and to crowd out voluntary actions. I conclude that the focus on such markets is creating a distraction from the need for changing human behaviour, institutions and infrastructure.

How Much is that Ecosystem in the Window? The One with the Bio-diverse Trail

Ecosystems are increasingly characterised as goods and services to allow their valuation in monetary terms. This follows an orthodox economic approach to environmental values, but is also being undertaken by ecologists and conservation biologists. There then appears a lack of clarity and debate as to the model of human behaviour, specific values and decision process being adopted. Arguments for ecosystems service valuation are critically appraised and the case for a model leading to value pluralism is presented. The outcome is to identify the need for value articulating processes which involve open deliberative judgment rather than instantaneously stated preferences, concealed expert opinion and global cost-benefit analysis.

Non-Economic Motivation for Contingent Values: Rights and Attitudinal Beliefs in the Willingness To Pay for Environmental Improvements

This paper reports on a national CVM survey administered in combination with a psychometric scale on pro-social environmental attitudes to test for non-economic motivations for WTP. The multi-item scale measures biospheric, altruistic, and egoistic motives, and analyzes their association with rights-based (deontological) and consequential (utilitarian) ethics. I test hypotheses concerning the existence of distinct value orientations, and the relationships between attitudes, ethics, protest bids, and WTP. Contrary to some recent claims based upon convenience samples, environmental attitudes are found to be significant in explaining intended WTP; this is associated with an egoistic motive and rights-based, rather than consequential, beliefs. (JEL Q00, D46, D64)

Greenhouse economics : value and ethics

1. Climate Change: Introducing some of the issues 2. Scientific Understanding of the Enhanced Greenhouse Effect 3. Impacts of Global Climate Change 4. Weak Uncertainty: Risk and imperfect information 5. Strong Uncertainty: Ignorance and indeterminacy 6. Calculating the Cost and Benefits of GHG Control 7. Loading the Dice? Values, opinions and ethics 8. Dividing Time and Discounting the Future 9. Economics, Ethics and Future Generations 10. Science, Economics and Policy

The Development of Environmental Thinking in Economics

There has always been a sub-group of established economists trying to convey an environmental critique of the mainstream. This paper traces their thinking into the late 20th century via the development of associations and journals in the USA and Europe. There is clearly a divergence between the conformity to neo-classical economics favoured by resource and environmental economists and the acceptance of more radical critiques apparent in ecological economics. Thus, the progressive elements of ecological economics are increasingly incompatible with those practising neo-classical environmental economics who try to reduce all concepts to fit within the confines of their models. A group of people can be identified who teach that ecological economics is nothing more than a name for the link between mainstream economics and ecology. A new movement and paradigm are unnecessary for such ends. This viewpoint is argued to be inconsistent with the roots and ideas of the ecological economics movement. Ecological economics is seen here to be synthesising various types of economics (e.g., socialist, institutional, environmental) and moving back to explicit inclusion of ethical issues in the mode of classical political economy. This inevitably means rediscovering neglected past works and exploring new ways of thinking about socio-economics and the environment.

Deliberative Monetary Valuation and the Evidence for a New Value Theory

Economists concerned with validity are combining stated-preference methods with participatory deliberation to address on-going criticism. Deliberative monetary valuation (DMV) uses formal methods of deliberation to express values for environmental change in monetary terms. However, the results have begun to define different realms of value, reflecting pluralism in public concern over environmental change. Reviewing empirical DMV studies evidences a range of issues regarded as external to economics and the validity of its methods, issues which are typically kept at arms length by most environmental economists namely, multiple values, incommensurability and lexicographic preferences, social justice, fairness, and non-human values. (JEL D61, Q51)

Informing and forming preferences in environmental valuation: Coral reef biodiversity

Abstract The level and depth of information provision required for making informed judgements over environmental options has remained troublesome in various contexts from individual choice through to international policy. In the valuation literature concern has been expressed for ‘information bias’ leading to distorted estimates of the worth of environmental entities (e.g. wildlife, ecosystems) because peoples intentions are formed during the valuation process by the information provided. Contending psychological models on the role of information and its relationship to ethical concerns are reviewed with respect to public decision processes over environmental entities. The robustness of pre-existing environmental preferences is then linked to ethical positions but their role is unclear. Empirical evidence is reported from a contingent valuation method study of coral reef biodiversity on the strong connections between informing and forming preferences and specific ethical beliefs regarding environmental entities.

Deliberative Monetary Valuation: In Search of a Democratic and Value Plural Approach to Environmental Policy

The use of deliberative methods to assess environmental values in monetary terms has been motivated by the potential for small group discussion to help with preference formation and the inclusion of non‐economic values. In this review, two broad approaches are identified: preference economisation and preference moralisation. The former is analytical, concentrates upon issues of poor respondent cognition and produces a narrow conception of value linked to utilitarianism. The latter emphasises political legitimacy, appeals to community values and tends to privilege arguments made in the public interest. Both approaches are shown to embrace forms of value convergence, which undermine the prospects for value pluralism. As a result exclusion and predefinition of values dominates current practice. In order to maintain democratic credentials, the importance attributed to monetary value needs to be left as an open question to be addressed as part of a process determining an “agreement to pay”. To this end we identify a discourse‐based approach as a third way consistent with the democratic and value plural potential of deliberative monetary valuation.