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Purpose: The study draws upon three accounts to examine post-truth politics and its link to accounting. In studying Petrobras, a Brazilian petrochemical company embroiled in a corruption scandal, the authors draw upon a politics of falsity to understand how different depictions of similar events can emerge. The authors depict Petrobras' corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures during the period of corruption juxtaposed against the Brazilian Federal Police investigation (the Lava Jato/Car Wash Operation) and Petrobras' response to the allegations of institutional corruption. Design/methodology/approach: The data set consisted of 56 Petrobras reports including Annual Reports, Financial Statements, Sustainability Reports and Form 20-Fs from 2004 to 2017, information disclosed by the Brazilian Federal Police concerning the Lava Jato Operation and media reports concerning Petrobras and the corruption scandal. The paper employs a discourse analysis approach to depict and interpret the accounts. Findings: Through examining the connection between ontic accounts and ontological presuppositions, the authors illustrate a post-truth logic underpinning accounting, due to the interpretive, contestable and contingent nature of accounting information. Consequently, the authors turn to the "ethics of the real" as a response, as citizen subjects must be cautious in how they approach accounting and CSR disclosures. Originality/value: Rather than relying on simplistic true/false dualities, the authors argue that the "ethics of the real" provides a courageous position for citizen subjects to interrogate the organisation by recognising the role of discourse and disclosure expectations on organisations in a post-truth environment. The study also illustrates how competing, contingent accounts of the same timeframe and events can emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding households' attitudes and willingness to pay (WTP) for clean heating can provide a scientific basis for decision-makers to assess the potential to develop clean heating, choose heating methods, and formulate subsidy standards in the region. In this paper, the double-bounded dichotomous contingent valuation method—modified by the spike model—was used to better estimate the actual WTP of households through a sample survey of 456 households in rural areas of Yongcheng City, China, in 2021. The factors influencing attitudes and WTP were examined to reveal mechanisms of accepting clean heating. The results showed that 94.96% of households were willing to pay for clean heating. The annual WTP was 1071 yuan per household, more than eight times the current heating cost. Factors that affect clean heating attitudes do not necessarily affect the WTP. Specifically, gender, length of time spent living at home, and family income had significant influences on WTP, whereas the educational level, adaptive perceptions in relation to environmental perceptions, and the recognition variables for gender equality in energy consumption had a significant impact on attitudes. It is worth noting that elderly people and females were identified as vulnerable groups in the implementation of clean heating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their seminal work Black and Scholes (1973) provide a significant insight which arguably is of more academic and practical value than their famous option pricing model. They demonstrate that corporate liabilities can be viewed as combinations of simple option contracts. This generalization of option pricing, as refined by Merton (1974, 1977), has become known as Contingent Claims Analysis (CCA). While CCA has subsequently been used by many researchers as a theoretical framework in which to view the pricing of corporate liabilities, its empirical validity remains an open question. Ingersoll (1976, 1977b) has tested the model's ability to predict prices for dual purpose funds and call policies for convertible bonds respectively. In a recent paper, JMR (1983), we tested CCA in one of its potentially most important applications, namely the valuation of debt in typical corporate capital structures. The objective of JMR (1983) was to test the predictive power of a prototypical model based on the usual set of assumptions in the CCA literature. The data base used in JMR (1983) was made up primarily of investment grade bonds, i.e. bond rating of BBB or higher. This paper extends that test of the prototypical model to a larger data base which includes a number of noninvestment grade, or “junk”, bonds. In addition, this paper demonstrates that in the multiple bond problem the value of callable debt need not be a monotonic function of firm value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the publication of the seminal papers by Black and Scholes and Merton on the pricing of options and corporate liabilities, their basic framework has been extended and applied to a variety of problems in finance. More recently, the same framework has been used for the valuation of interest dependent claims, and in particular for the pricing of default free bonds. These securities (generally government bonds of various types) are valued by treating them as "contingent" upon the course of one or more interest rates, along with suitable assumptions about the term structure of interest rates. Brennan and Schwartz assume that the value of a default free bond is a function solely of the instantaneous interest rate and time to maturity, and show that various types of bonds—savings bonds, retractable and extendible bonds, and callable bonds—all follow the same partial differential equation as discount bonds, the distinguishing feature being the associated boundary conditions. Taking into account the considerable theoretical work that has been done, there is relatively little published empirical research testing these models. Most of the empirical work in the area of contingent claims analysis has been on the stock options market, with the exception of Ingersoll on the pricing of dual fund shares and Brennan and Schwartz on the valuation of Canadian Federal Government coupon bonds. In this paper contingent claims analysis is applied to the valuation of retractable and extendible bonds and the resultant model is then applied to price Government of Canada bonds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is a growing number of studies on the export‐ and firm‐level implications of non‐tariff measures for developing countries, there is little evidence on the trickle‐down effects on the farm level. In this paper, we analyse the recent regulations of the European Union regarding the maximum allowed cadmium (Cd) contents for cocoa‐derived products. We assess the potential economic costs associated with these Cd regulations for smallholder cocoa farmers in Ecuador. We rely on data from a nationwide survey among 1392 cocoa producers and a contingent valuation method to estimate producers' willingness to convert cocoa orchards to other land uses in case cocoa bean Cd levels exceed the limit. We estimate that farmers' economic cost of abandoning cocoa production is, on average, about 4400 US$ per hectare. Combining this value with a Cd distribution map and cocoa production statistics, we estimate that abandoning cocoa cultivation in areas with bean Cd concentrations above the 0.6 mg/kg target comes at a total economic cost of about 750 million US$. We conclude that the potential total economic cost of the EU Cd standard at the producer level in Ecuador could be very large if compliance strategies are not implemented to minimise welfare loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unique nature and environment of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta as well as its agricultural production and its traditional lifestyle are endangered by a rising sea level and increasing salinization of the ground and surface water. This paper aims at the assessment of Vietnamese people's information on and attitudes towards these problems as well as their respective convictions and beliefs. Imbedded in an online survey with 2000 completed interviews we also conducted a Contingent Valuation study with which we want to assess people's willingness to contribute personally and financially to saving the Mekong Delta as an indication of the benefits they would expect from such a project. We interviewed three different groups of respondents, one of which lives directly in the Mekong Delta, a second lives outside the Delta, but close to it, that is in Ho Chi Minh City, and the third group lives far away from the Delta in Hanoi. With these three subsamples of respondents we wanted to capture not only the use benefits but also the nonuse benefits accruing from such a project. In the course of the interviews, we found that the Mekong Delta is of great interest and importance to all interviewees, no matter in which part of Vietnam they live. They were mostly well informed on the problems there and had strong opinions on the causes of these problems as well as on suitable strategies to fight them. In our Contingent Valuation study, we assessed the willingness of people at the different study sites to contribute financially to a hypothetical project for the preservation of the Mekong Delta and the socio‐economic, attitudinal and psychological determinants of this willingness. Besides these empirical findings, we also obtained valuable insights regarding various methodological aspects of Contingent Valuation studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Several studies have empirically investigated and measured firm growth in different aspects. Yet, no studies in Tanzania took advantage of enterprise surveys from World bank micro data to explore the effect of contingent and institutional factors on the firm's revenue growth. This paper will fill the gap by linking revenue growth with contingent and institutional factors. Methodology: By adopting the combined data sets from the World bank enterprise survey in 2006 and 2013, this paper regresses revenue growth measured by the log percentage change of sales against different kinds of contingent and institutional factors using Pooled Ordinary Least Square model. Findings: On average, contingent factors such as competition, small size and corruption positively affect revenue growth. Moreover, firms owned by a female, pressure from government regulations, tax rates, access to finance and skilled workforce are institutional factors significantly affecting the firms' revenue growth. The robust results indicate that these factors affect firms in the service industry more. Practical implications: The paper recommends that the government should have a mutual talk with firms' owners and review the regulations for firms' operations. Financial institutions should take an opportunity by giving loans to service firms to boost their liquidity, ultimately improving their revenue. Also, firms should construct a good recruitment policy that will enable them to hire skilled workers. Originality/Value: This paper used an updated World bank enterprise survey on firms in Tanzania cities. The results are robust to different categories of firms' sectors and industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the contingent valuation literature on hypothetical bias and valuation uncertainty, with special emphasis on measures of central tendency suitable for applied welfare analysis. In a theoretical scenario without valuation uncertainty, sample mean willingness to pay (WTP) is an estimator of population mean true WTP, the appropriate welfare measure. It is proposed here that this may not hold under valuation uncertainty. In this case, mean true WTP should be bounded by mean hypothetical WTP and mean actual WTP (in turn, mean actual WTP should exceed mean certain WTP). Based on a theoretical model and a review of existing empirical studies, median hypothetical WTP was found to be an estimator of mean true WTP. It is therefore proposed that contingent valuation researchers should consider using the sample hypothetical median as an estimator of population mean true WTP when supporting data on the degree of valuation uncertainty are absent. This could be a straightforward approach, e.g. in a low income country context, where the possibility of financing elaborate research designs accounting for valuation uncertainty is limited. It can also prove useful to revisit existing contingent valuation studies with these findings in mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Considering built heritage as public goods demands a lot of planning as usually historic sites and monuments are administrated by governments. The purpose of this paper is to propose and apply contingent valuation method (CVM) for the value assessment of historic sites as public goods. Design/methodology/approach – The aim of this research is to apply CVM to assess the total value as well as sub values, use and non-use values of a historic site. Ferdowsi mausoleum in Tus historic area near Mashhad city in Iran has been chosen as a case study. Findings – The paper indicates that historic sites meet all the criteria for being considered as public goods and obtained high amount of willingness to pay proves the significance of Ferdowsi mausoleum to the people of Mashhad city and its tourists. Non-use values comprise the highest share of value and cultural identity has the highest value among non-use values. Practical implications – It is recommended that CVM be applied in cost-benefit analysis of historic sites. This is useful in the process of prioritization of restoration and maintenance of historic sites and could be used by policy makers in policy crafting processes. Originality/value – CVM has been used for the first time for a mausoleum and for a site in Iran and sub values have been measured for the first time for a historic site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We document the submission, rejection, and resubmission patterns of ninety-six papers published in five agricultural and environmental economics journals and use this information to infer authors’ preferences among the set of journals. These data are augmented with stated preferences about submission fees, page charges, and membership requirements to forecast the effect of chances in journal submission policies on submission rates. We predict that if the American Journal of Agricultural Economics were to eliminate page charges and adopt a $100 submission fee, submissions to the journal would rise 18% and submissions to the Review of Agricultural Economics would fall 6.5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a conceptual framework to help in the interpretation or design of contingent valuation studies for improving river water quality in a developing country setting. An extensive literature review helped design this conceptual framework. Though the betterment of the river water quality has drawn the attention from various stakeholders, dearth of studies to deliver precise information about the value of the water quality appears a major drawback in developing countries to implement improvement plans. The major objective of this paper is to review the recent developments on non-market valuation e.g., contingent valuation method to design an appropriate economic valuation study for the river water quality. This study provides useful information which may help for further improvement of the water quality in an alike problem of developing countries. Future studies should validate empirically the proposed research framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to study the value of informal care (IC) time from the perspective of caregivers using two alternative contingent valuation tools – willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept (WTA) – and to identify the variables that affect the stated values. Design/methodology/approach – The authors used data from a multi-centre study of 610 adult caregivers conducted in two Spanish regions in 2013. The existence of “protest zeros” and “economic zeros” because of the severe budgetary constraints of the households was also considered. Two-part multivariate models were used to analyse the main factors that explained the declared values of WTA and WTP. Findings – The average WTP and WTA were €3.12 and €5.98 per hour of care, respectively (€3.2 and €6.3 when estimated values for “protest zeros” and “economic zeros” were considered). Some explanatory variables of WTA and WTP are coincident (place of residence and intensity of care time), whereas other variables only help to explain WTP values (household and negative coping with caregiving) or WTA values (age and burden of care). Some nuances are also identified when comparing the results obtained without protest and economic zeros with the estimated values of these special zeros. Originality/value – Studies analysing the determinants of WTP and WTA in IC settings are very scarce. This paper seeks to provide information to fill this gap. The results indicate that the variables that explain the value of IC from one perspective may differ from the variables that explain it from an alternative perspective. Given the relevance of contextual factors, studies on the topic should be expanded, and care should be taken with the extrapolation of results across countries and settings.

Copyright of Iranian Journal of Agricultural Economics & Development Research (IJAEDR) is the property of University of Tehran and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

To provide passengers with a better flight experience and make their journey more comfortable, airlines are diversifying their services to attract more customers. One of these services includes the development of a sleeper seat. A sleeper seat, also known as family couch in Taiwan, mainly provides a row of 3–4 economy class seats that allow passengers to lie down. Although Taiwan's China Airlines originally offered this service, it stopped due to poor sales; however, other international airlines continue to implement similar services. Regarding previous research exploring air service issues, almost no research has focused on sleeper seats. Accordingly, this article focuses on exploring Taiwanese passengers' willingness to pay (WTP) for the sleeper seat service and the influencing factors. The contingent valuation method (CVM) was used to construct the price scenario of passengers' WTP. To avoid estimation bias and thus provide more reliable results, the spike model was used to estimate passengers' WTP for the sleeper seat service and the influencing factors. According to the results, when considering multiple variables, people were willing to increase the price paid to use parent-child cabins by NTD 11,194, which was about 75% of the original price but lower than the preferential price offered by the airlines, indicating a gap between the amount people were willing to pay and the airlines' pricing. In addition, if passengers were traveling with children or if the passengers had higher flight frequencies and personal incomes, they were willing to purchase the sleeper seat service. However, people who had not experienced the sleeper seat service were unwilling to purchase it. This paper is practical to reflect current aviation industry marketing, and the research results contribute to the existing literature and provide a reference for Taiwan's civil aviation industry when relaunching the sleeper seat service in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollinators are a crucial part of our ecosystem which aids the life of almost all living organisms present in this universe, and their contributions are justifiable according to Paretian efficient conditions. Though the services are an inseparable part of our life, property rights issues have made it difficult to evaluate the real worth of their services by Coase guidelines, the possible externalities they put to this universe, and the actual impact that free raiders have caused. This paper is based on techniques to incorporate those hidden services in economic assessment and policy formulation. For the economic evaluation of their services, we can quantify their values based on people's willingness to pay for the service, which aids in estimating the market value of producer and consumer's surplus, and the cost of the alternate means to achieve the same services, through production factor method, etc. To identify the sustainability of these ecosystem services, the regulation of pesticide use has to be integrated with these services. Farmers should focus not only on monoculture, but also on intensive farming, chemicals, making the least use of GMOs, and following Permaculture techniques in living and cultivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates Malaysian farmers' willingness to pay (WTP) for a planned adaptation programme for addressing climate issues in the Malaysian agricultural sector. We used the contingent valuation method (CVM) for a monetary valuation of farmers' preferences for a planned adaptation programme by ascertaining the value attached to address climatic issues in the Malaysian agricultural sector. Structured questionnaires were distributed among the sampled farmers. The study found that 74 % of respondents were willing to pay for a planned adaptation programme and that several socioeconomic and motivation factors have greater influence on their WTP. This paper clearly specifies the steps needed for all institutional bodies to better address issues in climate change. The outcomes of this paper will support policy makers to better design an efficient adaptation framework for adapting to the adverse impacts of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tourism Tribune / Lvyou Xuekan is the property of Tourism Institute of Beijing Union University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

One of the main barriers to adopting smallholder agricultural mechanization in developing countries is the mismatch between the economies of scale of machines and farm size. Private sector‐led mechanization services hold a promise to address this challenge, but there is a lack of evidence on demand for smallholder mechanization services. This study estimates the farmers' willingness to pay for mechanization services using the double‐bounded contingent valuation method and data from 1512 households. Results show that, on average, farmers are willing to pay 11%, 33%, and 5% more than prevailing market rates for land preparation, maize shelling, and transportation services, respectively. The amounts farmers are willing to pay for the mechanization services vary by sex, age group, size of cultivated land, the value of farmer assets, market access, and agroecology. Men are willing to pay 26%, 25%, and 11% more than women for land preparation, maize shelling, and transportation services. Moreover, 40% of female and 90% of male farmers are willing to pay more than or equal to the prevailing market rate for land preparation services. The high demand for mechanization services among smallholder farmers points to the need for making the machinery available to rural communities through mechanization service providers or machinery hiring centers run by the private sector. The paper concludes by discussing the contextual factors and policy options for promoting smallholder mechanization in Malawi. [EconLit Citations: O33, Q11, Q13, Q16]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the optimal design of a paywall when consumers endogenously determine their amount of content consumption. Digital content platforms increasingly implement paywalls to generate subscription revenue, but putting content behind paywalls can reduce consumption and advertising revenue. We analyze optimal paywall design when consumers are heterogenous in their valuation for and satiation with content and endogenously determine their consumption. We find that, under moderate ad rates, a metered paywall offering a limited amount of free content is optimal when consumers display sufficient heterogeneity in satiation. When ad rates increase, one might expect platforms to offer more free content to generate higher ad revenue. Instead, we find that sometimes offering less free content and lowering the subscription price is optimal to attract new subscribers. Further, depending on ad rates, the optimal amount of free content may increase or decrease in consumers' valuation for content. As valuation increases, consumers' willingness to pay for subscription and desire for content consumption increases. The former effect dominates under low ad rates and incentivizes the platform to provide less free content, but the opposite is true under high ad rates. Counterintuitively, we also find that total content consumption can increase with the proportion of users who become satiated relatively faster because the platform may strategically raise its meter limit to increase ad revenues from nonsubscribers. We also explore the impact of a more appealing outside option for consumers, competition between media platforms, and correlation between valuation and satiation on the optimality of paywalls. History: Yuxin Chen served as the senior editor. Funding: This work was supported by the INFORMS Society for Marketing Science (ISMS) through its ISMS Doctoral Dissertation Early Stage Research Grants. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2023.1444. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore participants' willingness to pay (WTP) for offsetting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with their participation in the World Winter Masters Games 2020 (WWMG20) in Innsbruck, Austria. We collected data from an online survey sent to participants at the event and used the contingent valuation approach to determine participants' WTP and a set of alternative regression models to investigate the factors that mainly influence WTP. Our results show that the median WTP for offsetting GHG lies within a range of EUR 10 (lower bound) to EUR 20 (upper bound). Furthermore, WTP is positively influenced by participants' attitudes toward climate change, their perception of the event as environmentally friendly, their level of education, as well as their overall expenses for traveling to the WWMG20. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper comes up with a methodology for evaluating the total economic value of the services provided by a forest ecosystem in a natural park, elaborated by the application of various research and evaluation methods, respectively: desk research, brainstorming, and multi-criteria analysis. In order to carry out the research, five methods of evaluating the value of the services offered by ecosystems, identified in the scientific literature, were selected: 1) Shadow pricing, 2) Production function, 3) Hedonic pricing, 4) Travel cost and 5) Contingent Valuation Method. Afterward, a brainstorming session was organized with the participation of 13 forestry specialists and researchers, who stated their ideas regarding the characteristics that the set of assessment methods of the ecosystem services provided by the Bucegi Natural Park should fulfill. Eight ideas/criteria were maintained: 1) To allow the quantification of the Total Economic Value of ecosystem services through monetary and non-monetary methods; 2) To be specific to the evaluated ecosystem services); 3) To be based on available/existing datasets; 4) To be carried out with the consultation of the interested factors and to respond to the requirements/needs of the central/local authorities and other interested factors, to provide information for making decisions regarding the proper functioning of the park in the context of changes climatic; 5) To have a high degree of objectivity; 6) To be easy/cheap/simple to apply; 7) To be replicable to other parks; 8) The development/testing time should be reasonable. The use of the multi-criteria analysis revealed that the second and the fourth criteria are the most important for being taken into account. Further processing of the data showed that Method 5 - The contingent Valuation Method, is the most appropriate to assess forest ecosystem services in Bucegi Natural Park. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution is a worldwide problem that needs to be address. Climate change and human health effects are considered the major concerns on this event. On this note, one of the policy tools that could help to resolve the issue is by adopting the contingent valuation method (CVM). CVM is a stated preference approach and can be done through conducting a survey which directly asks the respondent's willingness to pay (WTP) towards a service (i.e. contingent scenario). This paper identified the socio-demographic profiles of the residents in Cabanatuan City, assessed their knowledge and attitude about air pollution and its prevention, policies and programs currently implemented in each selected barangays, described the willingness to pay of the respondents in relation to contingent scenario, and assess the relationship between the profile and the respondents' WTP. Respondents have very high knowledge in the concepts of air pollution that leads to a very positive attitude regardless of their socio-demographic profiles. However, Logistic regression analysis revealed the insignificant relationship between the respondents' profile to their WTP. Respondents have very high knowledge and very positive attitude, which contributes to the positive WTP. Hence, a positive outcome in WTP. Therefore, residents are willing to pay and prevention of air pollution has a potential market value for the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of the paper is to provide a monetary valuation of social benefits in connection with the hypothetical implementation of technological innovations at four Euro 2012 stadiums in Poland. Not only the construction of the sport's arenas, but also the ongoing maintenance drain the pockets of Polish taxpayers. At the same time Euro 2012 stadiums remain underused, which familiarize the host cities with the concept of 'white elephants'. Due to the application of the contingent valuation method (CVM), the social effects obtained by the residents of four Polish cities were linked to proposed technological innovations, which were given appropriate monetary values. The research has proved the importance of technological innovations at the Euro 2012 stadiums in Poland. As a result, the residents of four Polish cities valued the social benefits related to the implementation of these innovations at PLN 70 million (USD 18 million). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South Korean government currently designates toluene as a hazardous chemical, only limiting its use in products that are feared to be harmful. Since no measures to prohibit the use of toluene have been implemented, toluene is frequently detected in amounts that exceed the limit. Accordingly, the Government is considering implementing a plan to tighten the current regulations related to the use of toluene to prevent the occurrence of diseases caused by exposure and addiction to it. Therefore, the most important objective of this research is to evaluate quantitatively the economic benefits arising from the implementation of the plan in South Korea. To achieve the purpose of this paper, contingent valuation, an economic technique for analyzing data collected from a survey of people based on economic theory, is applied. For this purpose, a survey of 1000 people nationwide is conducted, and an analysis model that is well received in the literature is adopted. In other words, the annual willingness to pay (WTP) per household to strengthen the regulations to reduce the human health risks of toluene is evaluated to calculate its economic benefits. All the estimated WTP models secure statistical significance. The average WTP per household per annum is derived as KRW 3394 (USD 3.02). Considering that the country contained 20,573,060 households in 2021, the national economic benefits are calculated as KRW 69.82 billion (USD 62.23 million) every year. It is difficult to estimate accurately the costs incurred by tightening the regulations on toluene use, but they do not seem to exceed the benefits. Because tightening the regulations would be socially desirable, the Government would be justified in making this decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the functions and threats of Suraha Tal Wetland are identified by the stated preference method and weightage is given according to their rank. The objective of the study is to determine the total economic value of Suraha Tal Wetland. The direct value can be drawn from the market price and from a survey of the stakeholders. Suraha Tal Wetland is also famous for the presence of the Jai Prakash Narayan Birds Sanctuary, which makes it a biodiversity-enriched area. The indirect value has been drawn from a review of the literature on Suraha Tal Wetland and the relevance of this literature is justified through the comprehensive meta-analysis (CMA) software. The total valuation of the wetland has been calculated. The paper concludes with suggestions for a few management strategies for better wetland management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Karst caves are widespread in Europe, especially in the Mediterranean area. Besides their purely environmental functions, they often are important tourist destinations and contribute to the so-called identity amenities or landscape beauties of a territory. In spite of their interest and tourism potential, economists have paid little attention to karst caves and their economic value. In this paper, the contingent valuation method (CVM) was applied to investigate tourists’ preferences and estimate the monetary value attributed to karst caves, and in particular to the Pradis Caves, Friuli Venezia Giulia region (Italy). 540 visitors of the area took part in a face-to-face contingent valuation survey. Mean willingness-to-pay was equal to € 5.37. When scaled up to the population, gross social benefit was estimated in about € 23 K/year. Findings suggest that the karst cave value could have a significant impact on the social welfare gains or losses, and inform the karst cave-use management debate concerning the trade-offs of developing tourism activities. The estimated values allow institutional decision makers to identify the volume of financial resources to be put into play for interventions aimed at protection and conservation of this environmental asset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contingent valuation method (CVM) is a widely adopted approach for estimating individuals' willingness to pay (WTP) for public goods. Using national survey data from Japan, this paper examines how the estimated WTP through CVM varies with different risk probabilities and risk information presentations in the context of natural disasters. The findings show that people's WTP is insensitive to the frequency of the disaster and the baseline level of the risk; the commonly observed ratio bias (RB) effect is not significant in our investigation. However, consistent with one similar study before, “group diffusion,” an opposite effect of RB is likely to occur, especially when the disparity between different risk descriptions is large. The result of this paper suggests that WTP may be influenced by the risk information provided and the way risk is framed in communications; therefore, CVM should be cautiously treated through rigorous validity checks when it is used to estimate WTP and risk is an important factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how the public perceive and value ponds is fundamental to appreciate the synergy between Sustainable urban Drainage (SUDS) ponds and the multiple benefits they provide. This paper investigates this, through the application of a structured postal and online survey, for a case study area of Edinburgh, in the UK. It compares man-made ponds (including SUDS), and ponds with natural origins. The results from Whole Life Cost show that the benefits (based on Contingent Valuation) exceed the CAPEX and OPEX costs for three of five artificial ponds studied. Benefits from natural (reference) ponds exceed the replacement costs for a pond with the same surface area/catchment. This paper highlights the importance of monetising the multiple benefits from ponds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Ghana, groundwater, accessed through wells and boreholes, is generally unregulated and may be contaminated with pollutants including excess nitrates from agricultural chemical fertilizers. Yet, studies estimating how clean groundwater is valued are not available in Ghana. In addition, some research suggests that the pre‐experiment information provided to survey respondents affects their valuation of an identical outcome. This paper estimates smallholder farmers' preferences for groundwater protection using pre‐experiment information focused on one of two outcomes: environment or health. The double‐bounded contingent valuation (DBCV) approach is used to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) to protect groundwater quality. The estimation accounts for shift and anchoring effects, which are common issues with the DBCV method. The mean WTP from the health (environmental) information subsample is about US$19 (US$17) per acre, and the values are significantly different between the information conditions. The findings shed light on the importance of using precise information in eliciting WTP in a developing country setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: What determines the level of acquisition premium? This paper aims to investigate the effect of acquirers' social capital as reflected through their network position (structural holes and network density) on the level of acquisition premiums. Design/methodology/approach: This study predicts acquisition premiums using a panel data set of 324 mergers and acquisition (M&A) transactions including 161 unique acquirers over a 21-year timeframe. M&A and alliance information are obtained from the securities data company platinum database; firm financial data are obtained from the COMPUSTAT database. Findings: The results show that alliance network social capital provides acquiring firms with information benefits, thus, reducing the acquisition premium. However, such information benefits are also contingent on target valuation uncertainty and acquirers' structure exploitation tendency. Practical implications: Different types of network structures provide different social capital influences: managers should be aware of their advantages and pitfalls when engaging in M&As. The findings suggest that firms should pay close attention to social capital when making decisions regarding acquisition premiums. Originality/value: Past research has indicated that acquiring firms tend to overestimate the value of target firms. Still, little attention has been paid to organizational-level social capital in analyzing the determinants of acquisition premiums. This study offers insight into the effect of network structure on M&A acquisition premiums. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the role of restructuring, as compared to the one of liquidation, in valuation of long-term debt contracts in a continuous-time model with costly information disclosure. In asset-pricing literature, Merton's (J Finance 29:449-470, ) contingent-claim models have been long used for valuation of corporate securities and loans. However, since they basically assume sufficiently complete security structures in markets, the literature is not necessarily suitable for examining costly-information problems. On the other hand, in corporate-finance literature, it has been well known that agency costs (i.e., conflicts of interest among agents) distort corporate capital structure under costly-information problems. However, the effect of the distortion on valuation of securities and loans has not been explicitly studied either in theory or in practice. This paper bridges such a gap between the two literatures. This paper shows that, under a costly-information problem, corporate leverage ratios are higher when restructuring is expected to be accepted in default than otherwise. The risk of a jump to liquidation increases the default probability in short term, and decreases the probability of restructuring over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wetland administration, as the connected side of wetland science, requires a comprehension of the logical parts of wetlands adjusted with legitimate, institutional, social and monetary substances. This paper endeavours to evaluate how the group instruction can oversee and save the wetlands and furthermore to gauge the estimation of two wetlands situated at various states utilizing Contingent Valuation Technique (CVT). A model is being developed to describe the relationship between the wage of family and its Willingness to Pay (WTP) with the help of some indicators related to conservation and wise use of two wetlands. A total of 600 samples families have been considered for two wetlands. Seven attributes are being considered as dependent parameters for WTP. The results shows that WTP of rural households were found to be INR 10,000 and INR 18,000 for Gajna and Rudrasagar, whereas almost 47% lesser value was found for Gajna wetland with respect to Rudrasagar of urban households for better conservation and wise use of two important wetlands using CVT. The outcomes delineate WTP is more noteworthy and great relationship got with the assistance of factual system with training other than condition and separation for both the wetlands. At last, this paper finishes up the relapse investigation utilizing measurable programming demonstrates the salary to be the most essential capacity which decides WTP of the partners may enhance the financial upliftment through protection and shrewd utilization of wetlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-market valuation (NMV) is recognized as an important tool in environmental policy decision-making worldwide. In this paper, we investigate the history of NMV, specifically in relation to New Zealand, by compiling and reviewing all available published NMV studies prior to the year 2006. The results illustrate a significant increase in the number of studies, specifically those requested by government agencies, following the passage of the New Zealand Resource Management Act of 1991. Studies were found to be concentrated in three major areas: outdoor recreation, environmental conservation/management, and travel time savings. These three areas covered eight environmental commodities, the value of which totalled 70 billion New Zealand dollars (2007 NZD) per annum, or 50% of the country's gross domestic product, with the highest valued commodity being biodiversity services. While our analysis yielded many positive results, we did discover a lack of studies in areas such as pest protection, cultural resources, and popular outdoor recreational activities (e.g., black water rafting, bungee jumping, and surfing). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a general framework for pricing contingent claims under interest rate and asset price uncertainty. The framework extends Ho and Lee's (1986) valuation framework by allowing not only future interest rates but also future asset prices to depend on the current term structure of interest rates. The approach is shown to provide risk-neutral valuation relationships that are consistent with the initial term structure of interest rates and can be applied to valuation of a broad class of assets including stock options, convertible bonds, and junk bonds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how a monopoly seller should determine the optimal set of pricing variables (pricing metrics) for third-degree price discrimination applications in which buyers have log-normally distributed willingness-to-pay (WTP). In a setup that closely resembles linear and probit regressions, this paper shows that when the monopoly seller is restricted to using one metric and no price discrimination cost exists, the pricing metric that best reduces the residual variance of buyers’ willingness-to-pay is the one that maximizes revenue. Equivalently, the explanatory power of willingness-to-pay is the ordering criterion. This paper also shows that this criterion is not universally true when willingness-to-pay follows other distributions. When the seller incurs price discrimination costs associated with different metrics, the ordering criterion becomes the explanatory power of each pricing metric divided by its cost. This paper also discusses how to apply this model to solve real-world pricing problems with contingent valuation models or using probit regression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In applying economic insights to an array of environmental policy problems, the field of environmental economics has burgeoned since the last major growth spurt of wider environmental concern at the end of the 1980s. The continued development of this field is evidenced by several flourishing specialist journals and dedicated societies on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The papers in this special issue of the "Portuguese Economic Journal" are intended to introduce the reader to a number of key current debates in applied environmental economics. That is, a common theme of these contributions is the practical application of economic insights to an empirical understanding of environmental problems and policy responses.

This paper proposes a first monetary measure of the private costs of celiac disease, including intangible costs (physical symptoms, logistical constraints, etc.) in Switzerland. This auto-immune disease damages the intestine when patients ingest gluten. The only treatment currently available is a gluten-free diet, which implies great nutritional constraints. To get a monetary equivalent of the costs borne by celiac patients, we used a contingent valuation. The scenario suggested to celiac patients a treatment in form of a daily pill, which would allow them to eat normally and avoid any physical pain from celiac disease. Mean Willingness To Pay (WTP) for the treatment is found to be around CHF 87 (approx. USD 87) per month. WTP is positively influenced by direct and indirect costs of the disease. Oppositely, individuals, who find the gluten-free diet healthier are willing to pay less. Finally, unlike symptoms before diagnostic, the current presence or intensity of physical symptoms are found to be insignificant. The latter result can be explained by the fact that, individuals facing stronger symptoms are more likely to adhere strictly to the GFD and hence to reduce their frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper details research to design an estimation process for Deprivation Cost Functions (DCF) using Contingent Valuation, and to apply it econometrically to obtain a DCF for drinkable water. The paper describes both the process and results obtained. The results indicate that deprivation costs for drinkable water have a non-linear relation with deprivation times. The estimated DCFs provide a consistent metric that could be incorporated into humanitarian logistic mathematical models, eliminating the need to use proxy metrics, and providing a better way to assess the impacts of delivery options and actions. The research reported in this paper is the first attempt in the literature to produce estimates of the economic value of human suffering created by the deprivation of a critical supply or service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aimed to present the value of a farm animal welfare (FAW) program that is not compulsory in South Marmara Region of Turkey. It is based on the face-to-face survey results administered in rural areas of Bursa City. The study measures the willingness to accept of producers for changing FAW levels in regards to sheep and goat husbandry. Contingent valuation technique is employed in the statistical analysis. Three different FAW levels were identified for valuation as "base" level, "better" level, and the "best" level. The best level was the most stringent FAW program. The current study suggests a protocol with WTA(P) nomenclature to resolve complexity issues in FAW studies by investigating producers rather than consumers. FAW programs' value were calculated as130.3 million United States Dollars (USD) for base scenario. The figures were 166.2 million USD/Year and 175 million USD/Year for "better" and "best" FAW conditions, respectively. The results show that FAW programs have strong public opinion and non-market value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data collection for economic valuation by using Internet surveys and pre-recruited Internet panels can be associated with severe disadvantages. Problems concerning sample coverage and sample representativeness can be expected. Representation errors may occur since people can choose whether to be part of an Internet panel and subsequently whether they wish to participate in the survey, thereby introducing two elements of potential self-selection. These elements may be correlated with preferences, thus making the respondents a non-random and non-representative sample, ultimately biasing results. This paper analyses a sample used for an Internet contingent valuation method survey eliciting preferences for improvements in water quality of a river. We find that some variables that affect the survey participation decision also affect willingness-to-pay, consequently biasing our welfare estimates. We show how adjusting willingness-to-pay for this bias can be accomplished by using a grouped data model incorporating a correlation parameter to account for selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a humanitarian disaster as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) shapes the working approach of accountants. This research is motivated by the call for more in-depth analyses of how COVID-19 affects the work, role and human condition of accountants. The study aims to discover the contingent effects, based on the contingency theory, on accountants' work due to a disaster like COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach: This is a qualitative study with an action research approach. The research relies on semi-structured interviews and the active participation of a co-author in a professional organisation under investigation. Data collected are analysed using thematic analysis through an inductive interpretative approach. Findings: The contingent shock embodies both a reactive and adaptive approach in the accountants' professional work. From a theoretical perspective, this study identifies nine contingent phases related to shock. The accountants' experience helps to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic contingently shapes the working approach of accountants with both short- and long-term organisational implications. Originality/value: Based on the literature survey, this is the first study to adopt an action research approach to engage with the complex dynamics involved in the social context of COVID-19 by discovering the effective actions, reactions, changes and solutions to problems experienced by professional accountants. This approach helps to build knowledge that enhances professional, and community practises by answering the call for multidisciplinary contributions in accounting to address the global COVID-19 crisis, its impacts and opportunities for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sensitivity to scope in nonmarket valuation refers to the property that people are willing to pay more for a higher quality or quantity of a nonmarket public good. Establishing significant scope sensitivity has been an important check of validity and a point of contention for decades in stated preference research, primarily in contingent valuation. Recently, researchers have begun to differentiate between statistical and economic significance. This paper contributes to this line of research by studying the significance of scope effects in discrete choice experiments (DCEs) using the scope elasticity of willingness to pay concept. We first formalize scope elasticity in a DCE context and relate it to economic significance. Next, we review a selection of DCE studies from the environmental valuation literature and derive their implied scope elasticity estimates. We find that scope sensitivity analysis as validity diagnostics is uncommon in the DCE literature and many studies assume unitary elastic scope sensitivity by employing a restrictive functional form in estimation. When more flexible specifications are employed, the tendency is towards inelastic scope sensitivity. Then, we apply the scope elasticity concept to primary DCE data on people's preferences for expanding the production of renewable energy in Norway. We find that the estimated scope elasticities vary between 0.13 and 0.58, depending on the attribute analyzed, model specification, geographic subsample, and the unit of measurement for a key attribute. While there is no strict and universally applicable benchmark for determining whether scope effects are economically significant, we deem these estimates to be of an adequate and plausible order of magnitude. Implications of the results for future DCE research are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is ample evidence on consumers' perceptions and willingness to pay (WTP) for organic food in developed markets, empirical evidence for transition economies is scarce. This paper is based on a survey of 608 Russian consumers that combined a questionnaire with a contingent valuation approach to investigate the impact of perceptions and trust on consumers' WTP for certified organic, uncertified all‐natural and conventional milk, respectively. A between‐subject treatment design was used to analyse how consumers' WTP responds to different information treatments. Our results suggest that most participants connect health benefits with the consumption of organic food, followed by slightly fewer respondents connecting organic production with environmental benefits. In the case of animal welfare benefits, the picture is less clear, as only 46% of respondents indicated that they agree that organic livestock production is associated with animal welfare benefits. Concerning the trust in farmer's adherence to organic standards, a substantially higher share of respondents expressed trust in producers from the European Union versus their Russian counterparts. About 51% of respondents exhibited a positive WTP for organic milk in comparison to conventional milk. At the same time, there is no statistically significant difference in respondents' WTP between all‐natural and organic milk. This similarity suggests that respondents do not seem to differentiate between uncertified all‐natural milk and certified organic milk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]