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Using both qualitative and quantitative approaches, this article investigates the under-researched demand-side of locally-financed Payments for Environmental Services (PES). It assesses downstream users'' willingness to pay (WTP) for improved tap water quality in a setting where upstream landowners are clearing watersheds. The research findings are indicative of a considerable WTP for improved drinking water services and a definite local awareness of upstream–downstream interdependencies, suggesting potential for successful PES. Contingent Valuation (CV), however, found a substantially lower WTP under a PES scenario than under an alternative scenario involving infrastructure investments. The qualitative research angle indicates that the feasibility of a locally-financed PES system may have been negatively affected by the prevailing discursive framing of agricultural externalities and entitlements, raising issues about the fairness of such payments. Moreover, low levels of mutual trust were found to undermine the credibility of the PES framework. These results confirm that institutional failures contribute to environmental degradation and that PES should not be viewed as a market panacea transcending the local institutional context, but rather as a potentially complementary instrument within a broader rearrangement of environmental governance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

: Internet is an increasingly popular data collection mode for stated preference research in environmental economics. However, little is known about how this survey mode may influence data quality and welfare estimates. As part of a national contingent valuation (CV) survey estimating willingness to pay (WTP) for biodiversity protection plans, we assign two groups of respondents either to an Internet or face-to-face (in-home) interview mode. Our design aims to better isolate measurement effects from sample composition effects by drawing both samples from the same sample frame. We find little evidence of social desirability bias in the interview setting or satisficing (shortcutting the response process) in the Internet survey. The share of “don''t knows”, zeros and protest responses to the WTP question with a payment card is very similar between modes and equality of mean WTP cannot be rejected. Results are fairly encouraging for the use of Internet in CV as stated preferences do not seem to be significantly different or biased compared to face-to-face interviews. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A survey was designed to elicit donations for delaying inevitable aquatic invasions of inland water bodies within a respondent's region. Surveys were distributed throughout the United States. Assuming all aquatic species groups invade simultaneously, our results suggest that the average person was willing to make a one-time payment of $48 to delay low to high impacts one year (aggregates to nearly $4billion for all U.S. households). By comparison, the federal government currently (2006) invests $394million annually for all invasive species (aquatic and terrestrial) prevention and early detection/rapid response. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The contingent valuation method is a widely used, yet controversial approach for valuating unpriced public goods in environmental and ecological economics. There is ongoing debate about the validity of the willingness-to-pay statements this method elicits particularly then when ethically or morally 'charged' public goods are assessed. It has been assumed that a considerable portion of the public holds deontological stances toward and applies analytical moral reasoning to such goods, which distort willingness-to-pay statements and subsequent cost-benefit analyses based on stated economic values. Results from studies in developmental and moral psychology, however, indicate that the majority of people base moral choice, and subsequently trade-offs, on social norms, affective reactions, and moral intuition rather than on analytical moral reasoning. This article presents a small focus-group study of people in the UK (n =18), exploring whether their responses supports the idea that a considerable percentage of the public holds deontological stances towards the environment that influence their willingness to pay for environmental goods. The article contributes to the discourse on the validity of willingness-to-pay statements. From a broader perspective, it scrutinizes the importance of analytical moral reasoning and suggests that affective judgments and intuition are relevant to environmental valuation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Survey based valuation techniques like the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) rely particularly on the premise of respondents'' rationality when answering willingness to pay (WTP) questions. Results of CVM surveys have repeatedly put this fundamental assumption into question. This study adopts a more realistic view of rationality accounting for respondents'' limited capacities to process information. Based on cognitive psychology a technique to detect and analyze the bounds of rationality inherent in WTP statements is developed. Using an empirical example, the influence of bounded rationality on the validity of CVM results is analyzed. It is shown that individual differences in information processing play a major role for the validity of CVM responses. The results allow new insights into response behavior in dichotomous-choice versus payment card elicitation formats. From the results of this study recommendations for future survey designs taking into account respondents'' different information processing modes are developed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper examines empirically the relative influence of the degree of endangerment of wildlife species and their stated likeability on individuals'' allocation of funds for their conservation. To do this, it utilises data obtained from the IUCN Red List, and likeability and fund allocation data obtained from two serial surveys of a sample of the Australian public who were requested to assess 24 Australian wildlife species from three animal classes: mammals, birds and reptiles. Between the first and second survey, respondents were provided with extra information about the focal species. This information resulted in the dominance of endangerment as the major influence on the allocation of funding of respondents for the conservation of the focal wildlife species. Our results throw doubts on the proposition in the literature that the likeability of species is the dominant influence on willingness to pay for conservation of wildlife species. Furthermore, because the public''s allocation of fund for conserving wildlife species seems to be more sensitive to information about the conservation status of species than to factors influencing their likeability, greater attention to providing accurate information about the former than the latter seems justified. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Forests play a significant role for human''s well being. Economists'' attention is mostly drawn on the market value of (certain) forest products. The trend, however, is changing as non-market values of forests are increasingly appreciated and measured. Recently, the ecosystem value of natural resources has been studied by natural resource economists and its role on human welfare is ensured. These studies had made a considerable progress in valuation of environmental and ecological services, which was offered by ecosystems. There are different methods assessing environmental economy based on revealed and stated preference for measure of environmental values. The subjects of this research are the determination of existence value of north forests of Iran (NFI), adjacent to Caspian Sea, and measure of individual''s willingness to pay (WTP) based on contingent valuation (CV) and dichotomous choice (DC). The logit model was used for measuring individuals WTP. Estimation parameters of the model are based on the method of maximum likelihood (ML). Results showed that 65.8% individuals are willing to pay for the existence of NFI, while about 20% of these individuals have not yet visited, and 41% of them only visited the NFI once or twice. The mean of WTP for existence value of these forests is US$2.51 household/month or annual value of US$30.12 for a household. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Policy makers have responded to concerns over declining levels of biodiversity by introducing a range of policy measures including agri-environment and wildlife management schemes. Costs for such measures are relatively easy to establish, but benefits are less easily estimated. Economics can help guide the design of biodiversity policy by eliciting public preferences on different attributes of biodiversity. However, this is complicated by the generally low level of awareness and understanding of what biodiversity means on the part of the general public. In this paper we report research that applied the choice experiment and contingent valuation methods to value the diversity of biological diversity. Focus groups were used to identify ecological concepts of biodiversity that were important and relevant to the public, and to discover how best to describe these concepts in a meaningful and understandable manner. A choice experiment examined a range of biodiversity attributes including familiarity of species, species rarity, habitat, and ecosystem processes, while a contingent valuation study examined public willingness to pay for biodiversity enhancements associated with agri-environmental and habitat re-creation policy. The key conclusions drawn from the valuation studies were that the public has positive valuation preferences for most, but not all, aspects of biodiversity, but that they appeared to be largely indifferent to how biodiversity protection was achieved. Finally, we also investigate the extent to which valuation workshop approaches to data collection can overcome some of the possible information problems associated with the valuation of complex goods. The key conclusion was that the additional opportunities for information exchange and group discussion in the workshops helped to reduce the variability of value estimates. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In an original extension of contingent valuation methodology (CVM), support for a proposed environmental regulation is examined under three alternative polluter-pay specifications. Using a statewide random telephone sample of Washington State''s electorate, one scenario asks respondents for their support absent any CV price and absent any information regarding what producers will pay. A second scenario asks willingness to pay (WTP) providing only a CV price but no polluter-pay information. A third scenario asks respondents for their support giving both a CV price and a percentage of total costs producers will pay. Extending the CV methodology, this percentage varies randomly between respondents. Absent any price or firm cost sharing information, some respondents assume producers are absorbing the costs. Providing a CV price reverses this assumption, and reduces support even after controlling for price. When the CV price is given along with the percentage, WTP increases the larger the percentage. Within each scenario support also varies according to whether the type of industry being regulated is small and competitive, or monopolistic. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Contingent Valuation panel recommended that a response category be included along with the vote in favor and vote against options associated with a referendum contingent valuation question that allows individuals to express lack of a well defined opinion. However, the recommendation did not include guidance on how to analyze such responses. In this article, we describe the results of a carefully designed split sample experiment that allowed for comparison of a standard dichotomous-choice referendum treatment to a treatment that included the option of responding unsure to the contingent valuation question in addition to the standard vote in favor and vote against response categories. We are able to examine several options for dealing with the unsure responses and conclude that the unsure responses should be included in the value estimation as the respondents who choose this response category are distinct from respondents who choose the vote in favor and vote against response categories. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]