Mordechai Shechter

Psychological responses to air pollution: Some personality and demographic correlates

Abstract This paper examines peoples affective reactions towards air pollution and some personality and demographic correlates of these reactions. Data were collected by means of a survey based on a stratified cluster area probability sample of over 900 households in the Haifa region in northern Israel. In addition to demographic information, data were collected through structured interview procedure on trait anger and anxiety and a host of perceptions and attitudes with respect to air pollution, including: degree of anger and anxiety aroused by air pollution; perceived degree of pollution severity; propensity to pay towards pollution abatement; and methods of coping with air pollution. Perceived level of pollution is a stronger predictor of affective reactions and willingness to pay to reduce pollution than is the objective level of pollution. Furthermore, individuals more emotionally aroused with respect to a polluted environment are more prone to put in time and more willing to allocate financial resources towards pollution abatement. This study implicates age, perceptions of tax inadequacy, and personality variables as correlates of negative affect and willingness to pay. The decision theoretic implications of the data are discussed.

A critical review of economic valuation studies of externalities from incineration and landfilling.

The primary objective of this study was to assist waste management researchers, decision-makers and waste managers at national, regional and local levels, in their decision-making processes, with most recent valuations on the environmental and social costs of externalities associated with various pollutants and disamenities related to landfilling and incineration of municipal solid waste. The aim was achieved by mapping, gathering, analysing, comparing and synthesizing various valuation estimates, based on a thorough review of existing literature. This study provides the first comprehensive review and analysis focused on primary and secondary valuation studies, conducted since 1990. The second objective was to assess the appropriateness and reliability of the valuation methods and techniques that were performed in the reviewed studies. The results of the review are summarized in tables, organized by topics and units of measure and in addition a classified list that describes the profile of the reviewed studies is provided. The results are then analysed and compared, and recommended ranges of the values are presented. The study reveals inconsistency in part of the estimates across the reviewed studies and provides reasonable explanations for the variations. Given the nature of uncertainty, and the difficulties associated with transferring values among different places and cases, these values should be considered mostly as an indication for the order of magnitude of the externalities. Nevertheless, these essential estimates of the external costs can beneficially be used with proper adjustment for each individual case to address important policy questions regarding landfilling and incineration of waste.

Effects of Coral Reef Attribute Damage on Recreational Welfare

This paper presents the results of an economic valuation of coral reef degradation at Eilat, Israeli Red Sea. We estimate the marginal prices of coral and fish diversity and water visibility at US

Measuring Passive Use Value: Pledges, Donations and CV Responses in Connection with an Important Natural Resource

2.60 and US

Application of a comparative multidimensional life cycle analysis in solid waste management policy: the case of soft drink containers

1.20 per dive, respectively. From the standpoint of recreational diving welfare, the annual social costs of activities contributing to coral reef degradation are approximately US

A comparative study of environmental amenity valuations

2.86 million. To our knowledge, this is the first economic valuation of individual coral reef attributes and the first application of a choice experiment to coral reef valuation.

Dose-response modeling of recreationally important coral-reef attributes: a review and potential application to the economic valuation of damage

This paper examines monetary valuations of lost passive-use benefits associated with damage to a unique environmental resource – a national park, elicited through contingent valuation, and compares them with actual donations to the same end, where the latter are interpreted as a quasi-market expression of willingness to pay for non-market resource services. The relationships between the two valuation approaches were investigated in the specific context of an environmental episode which damaged a unique natural endowment, Israels Carmel National Park. The empirical analysis is based on data from two sample surveys; one sample was drawn from the population of people who either pledged or pledged and donated during a fund-raising campaign following the episode, with the proceeds dedicated to rehabilitation or prevention of future episodes; the second sample was drawn from the general population of the country. The results cannot be interpreted as providing unqualified support for the reliability of contingent valuation as a means for obtaining passive use values.

Valuation of pollution abatement benefits: Direct and indirect measurement

Abstract The paper describes the application of a multidimensional life cycle analysis (LCA) for packaging soft drinks in Israel. The suggested approach combines the conventional product LCA, vertical summation of all environmental burdens along the chain of production, use and disposal activities, and horizontal comparison of different products and disposal options, such as recycling, incineration or landfilling. The paper attempts to show that the most effective, as well as transparent, means of comparing packaging alternatives, is to place them on a commensurate basis, the most appropriate one being a monetary basis. Taking into account limitations and drawbacks of monetary valuation of non-market assets (namely, environmental assets), the study derived estimates of environmental benefits and damages associated with each alternative. The production of soft drinks containers in Israel, used here as an example for the above mentioned considerations, is based mainly on imported materials, since natural resources such as oil or bauxite do not exist in Israel. Locally, only direct production and pollution abatement costs are incorporated in the final bill, while global environmental burdens are excluded. Countries extracting and producing raw material for the packaging industry, in effect, grant an environmental subsidy to the final users, in this case — the Israeli user. The paper suggests that only by globalization of externalities and fully internalizing environmental costs into the price of the final product (the packaging material or the packaged product), an equitable full environmental accounting can be designed. This mechanism can be even accompanied by global trading in the relevant environmental credits. Decisions will, consequently, follow a sustainable path, in both importing and exporting countries.

Models of water market mechanisms and an illustrative application to the Middle East

The paper reports on a comparative study of direct and indirect approaches to valuing environmental amenities (i.e., public goods), specifically, air quality in terms of its human health effects. The application of three indirect valuation methods (via market goods) is reported here: the health production method, a consumer preferences (for nonmarket goods) model, and the cost of illness method. The first and second methods are (economic) behavior-based approaches where willingness to pay for an environmental good is derived by exploiting relationships in consumption between the public good and market good(s). The third method is based on a physical relationship—a dose-response function—between the environmental good and health. The direct valuation approach encompassed three contingent valuation elicitation formats: open-ended, modified iterative bidding game, and referenda-style binary choice. The application of all four methods was based on data from a survey of a large, stratified sample of households from the Haifa metropolitan area in northern Israel. The estimates of welfare change derived by the various methods are discussed and compared.

An anatomy of a groundwater contamination episode

Abstract.Dose–response modeling has been widely used to document links between anthropogenic stressors and ecosystem attributes, and as a basis in the economic valuation of pollution damage. We review studies on the relation between anthropogenic stress factors and coral-reef attributes valuable in recreation, discuss the components of the economic value of coral reefs, and examine the potential use of dose–response functions in the economic valuation of coral-reef damage.