Title

Virtual Experiments And Environmental Policy

Keywords

Environmental policy; Field experiments; Laboratory experiments; Risk perception; Subjective beliefs; Virtual reality; Wildfires

Abstract

We develop the concept of virtual experiments and consider their application to environmental policy. A virtual experiment combines insights from virtual reality in computer science, naturalistic decision-making from psychology, and field experiments from economics. The environmental policy applications of interest to us are the valuation of wild fire management policies such as prescribed burn. The methodological objective of virtual experiments is to bridge the gap between the artefactual controls of laboratory experiments and the naturalistic domain of field experiments or direct field studies. This should provide tools for policy analysis that combine the inferential power of replicable experimental treatments with the natural "look and feel" of a field domain. We present data from an experiment comparing valuations elicited by virtual experiments to those elicited by instruments that have some of the characteristics of standard survey instruments, and conclude that responses in the former reflect beliefs that are closer to the truth. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publication Date

1-1-2009

Publication Title

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management

Volume

57

Issue

1

Number of Pages

65-86

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2008.08.002

Socpus ID

60349116112 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/60349116112

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