Do causes of environmental problems affect Hicksian equivalent surplus? Evidence from the field

    Authors

    E. H. Bulte; S. Gerking; J. A. List;A. de Zeeuw

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Econ. Lett.

    Keywords

    field experiment; non-market valuation; WILLINGNESS-TO-PAY; PUBLIC-GOODS; Economics

    Abstract

    Measuring preferences via stated methods remains the only technique to obtain the total economic value of a non-marketed good or service. This study examines if alternative causes of an environmental problem affect individual statements of compensation demanded. Making use of a unique sample drawn from the Netherlands, we find that Hicksian equivalent surplus (ES) is not significantly affected by causes of environmental harm. While our finding, that agents only care about outcomes, rather than causes, is consonant with standard applications of utility theory, it is at odds with some recent experimental findings measuring the effects of cause on Hicksian compensating surplus (CS). (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

    Journal Title

    Economics Letters

    Volume

    85

    Issue/Number

    2

    Publication Date

    1-1-2004

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    157

    Last Page

    162

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000224339000003

    ISSN

    0165-1765

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