John B. Loomis

Measuring the total economic value of restoring ecosystem services in an impaired river basin: results from a contingent valuation survey

Five ecosystem services that could be restored along a 45-mile section of the Platte river were described to respondents using a building block approach developed by an interdisciplinary team. These ecosystem services were dilution of wastewater, natural purification of water, erosion control, habitat for fish and wildlife, and recreation. Households were asked a dichotomous choice willingness to pay question regarding purchasing the increase in ecosystem services through a higher water bill. Results from nearly 100 in-person interviews indicate that households would pay an average of

Economic benefits of rare and endangered species: summary and meta-analysis

21 per month or

Computational Methods for Measuring the Difference of Empirical Distributions

252 annually for the additional ecosystem services. Generalizing this to the households living along the river yields a value of

Confidence intervals for evaluating benefits estimates from dichotomous choice contingent valuation studies.

19 million to

Valuing option, existence, and bequest demands for wilderness.

70 million depending on whether those refusing to be interviewed have a zero value or not. Even the lower bound benefit estimates exceed the high estimate of water leasing costs (

The evolution of a more rigorous approach to benefit transfer: Benefit function transfer

1.13 million) and conservation reserve program farmland easements costs (

Using meta‐analysis for benefit transfer: In‐sample convergent validity tests of an outdoor recreation database

12.3 million) necessary to produce the increase in ecosystem services.

Comparative reliability of the dichotomous choice and open-ended contingent valuation techniques

Abstract The economic value of rare, threatened and endangered species to citizens of the USA has been measured using the contingent valuation method for 18 different species. Annual willingness to pay (WTP) range from a low of

What's to Know About Hypothetical Bias in Stated Preference Valuation Studies?

6 per household for fish such as the striped shiner to a high of

Applying contingent valuation in China to measure the total economic value of restoring ecosystem services in Ejina region

95 per household for the northern spotted owl and its old growth habitat. A regression analysis of WTP values shows that over half of the variation in WTP is explained by the change in the size of the population, whether the payment is one-time or annual, whether the respondent is a visitor or non-user and whether the species is a marine mammal or bird. This illustrates that the contingent valuation method can provide meaningful estimates of the anthropocentric benefits of preserving rare and endangered species. Thus, economic techniques are available to perform broad-based benefit-cost analyses of species preservation. However, the Safe Minimum Standard approach is offered as an alternative for endangered species preservation decisions. The values reported in this paper are most useful to assess whether the costs are likely to be disproportionate to the benefits. To date, for even the most expensive endangered species preservation effort (e.g., the northern spotted owl) the costs per household fall well below the benefits per household found in the literature.