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Applied Welfare Econ & Cost Benefit Analysis

Applied Welfare Econ & Cost Benefit Analysis. Chapter 9 Existence Values. Existence value. Purpose: To define existence value (as a benefit category) and discuss the theoretical and empirical problems CBA analysts face when using it. ACTIVE AND PASSIVE USE VALUES.

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Applied Welfare Econ & Cost Benefit Analysis

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  1. Applied Welfare Econ & Cost Benefit Analysis Chapter 9 Existence Values

  2. Existence value • Purpose: To define existence value (as a benefit category) and discuss the theoretical and empirical problems CBA analysts face when using it.

  3. ACTIVE AND PASSIVE USE VALUES • Social benefits are measured (comprehensively) through people's Willingness-to-Pay (WTP). • This is usually derived from observation of people’s behaviors (such as changes in consumption). • In some situations, however, people are willing to pay for something they don’t “consume.” • Measuring such “existence” value is more difficult.

  4. ACTIVE AND PASSIVE USE VALUES • Active use – person makes some nonrivalrous use of the object in question (e.g. hiking in the wilderness). • Passive use or non-use – person values good not actively used (e.g. thinking about existence of wilderness). • Non-use value – people are willing to pay even though they don’t use it.

  5. ACTIVE AND PASSIVE USE VALUES Non-use value is not easy to define. There are a number of complications. • First, it is sometime difficult to determine if a good has non-use value. • People can derive both use and non-use from an asset. It is difficult to separate the non-use value and use value components from the individual’s total WTP.

  6. ACTIVE AND PASSIVE USE VALUES Non-use value is not easy to define. There are a number of complications. • One can try to first determine the WTP for the use and then separately find the WTP for non-use (or vice versa), and then add the two together for total WTP. • However, the order (i.e. whether use or non-use comes first) typically yields different classifications of the same total WTP. (Appendix 9A provides an illustration.) • Second, non-use value cannot be directly observed, only discovered through stated preferences.

  7. ACTIVE AND PASSIVE USE VALUES Specific active use benefit categories: • Rivalrous consumption goods: value is easily determined through markets. • Direct nonrivalrous consumption: consumption is on site and can usually be observed. • Indirect nonrivalrous consumption: consumption is offsite (a book or movie about something) and also may be observable.

  8. ACTIVE AND PASSIVE USE VALUES Specific passive use benefit categories: • Option value: value to keep open the possibility of use in the future. • Pure existence value: good has intrinsic value apart from use value. • Altruistic existence value: driven by desire for others to consume the good. • Bequest value: altruism is directed toward future generations.

  9. Total Economic Value Non-use value Use value Actual use For others Option Value Existence Altruism Bequest

  10. MEASURING EXISTENCE VALUE • Directly eliciting total value can be derived from direct surveys • Respondents state their WTP based on all their possible motivations for valuing policy changes. • This approach depends on the analyst’s ability to frame correct questions, and requires the analyst to convey a full description of the policy in question

  11. MEASURING EXISTENCE VALUE • Eliciting altruistic existence values poses special problems... • For an individual’s own consumption, cost and benefits can be estimated separately and then added together to obtain net benefits • Altruistic values, however, may depend on the distribution of costs and benefits: who will use the good and who bears the cost of maintaining it?

  12. MEASURING EXISTENCE VALUE • If the above concerns are addressed and if the sample of individuals interviewed includes all the people with standing, then the valuations would complete the CBA • Often, however, only a sample of people are interviewed to supplement direct observation of use value.

  13. MEASURING EXISTENCE VALUE • As WTP of use and non-use values are sensitive to the order in which they are valued, use values should normally be discovered before non-use values, or else non-use will be overestimated. • Non-use values are also sensitive to geographic areas (i.e., higher existence values for assets in closer proximity). Therefore, the extrapolation of samples over a large geographic area is controversial.

  14. MEASURING EXISTENCE VALUE • Also, if respondents are informed of all sources of uncertainty relevant to the valuation of the policy change, then WTP becomes an option price => no adjustment for uncertainty is required.

  15. BUT SHOULD EXISTENCE VALUE BE INCLUDED IN CBA? • Although existence values for unique and long-lived assets should be estimated whenever possible, costs and benefits should be presented with and without their inclusion to make clear how they affect net benefits • When existence values can’t be measured, the analyst should discuss their possible significance on the sign of net benefits.

  16. NEXT Direct Valuation READ CHAPTER 12

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