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This report proposes the new method to estimate the effectiveness of safety improvements launched by Land Improvement Projects. This new method reveals that estimates from traditional method are often to be biased and inconsistent. Data about the number of accident are collected from the channels with safety improvements or without them. Because each channel cannot be in both states, we cannot observe both states in one channel. This is a kind of missing data problem and often called “counterfactual”. It is this that makes it difficult to accurately estimate the effectiveness of safety improvements. Fortunately, this problem can be solved and accurate estimate is available using the concept of average treatment effect correctly. When the effectiveness of safety improvements is estimated with ATE, we have to consider the possibility of self-selection problem. We need a different way to estimate effectiveness if self-selection occurs. The number of life saved through safety improvements is approximately 1.171 when self-selection is taken account for, compared to 0.909 when self-selection is not. This result shows the possibility that estimated effectiveness for a program is underestimated because of not taking account for self-selection.

In evaluation of the multifunctionality of agriculture and a rural community, some regular standardization of the evaluation means of the benefit for every subject has been performed. However, about the means of aggregating it to the total benefit, examination is not fully progressing. In many cases, the concept of area in which benefit can be aggregated, benefit area, is used for the aggregation means. However, there is almost no studies treated on it. So, in this study, we take up public project for reservoir in Osaka-fu, Oasis Project, and try to decide this benefit area. In fact, on the basis of Contingent Travel Cost Method, facilitation and elaboration of an aggregation are attained by using GIS. Finally we can describe the estimated result visually.

The travel cost method is a commonly used method of valuing recreational sites. Although mail surveys are often conducted to collect data on the costs of travel to the amenity, they usually result in a lower response rate than that of face-to-face interview surveys. As a result, several biases such as non-response bias and sample selection bias will occur. The benefit derived from the consumption of environmental services can be over-/under estimated. We examined whether the rate of non-response varies as the distance from the study site increases, based on the data collected from recent visitors of Ohigawa River, Shizuoka-city. We can conclude that, contrary to our expectation, there is no statistically significant correlation between the non-response rate and distance within 150km of the site.

In the paper, firstly, we statistically investigate the willingness to pay (WTP) for multifunctionality sustained by improvement project of agriculture and agricultural village. We apply the double bounded version of contingent valuation method (CVM) to estimate the mean of WTP. This version is extended one of dichotomous choice CVM and generally thought to be an effective method relative to original dichotomous choice CVM. However, because, in double bounded version of CVM, respondents are continuously asked the question that you could pay a listed value or not twice, 1st WTP derived from 1st responses and 2nd WTP derived from 2nd responses might not follow same distribution.So, We estimate the mean of 1st WTP estimated by using 1st responses only and the mean of 2nd WTP estimated by using 2nd responses only. In all survey area, the mean of 1st WTP is larger than that of 2nd WTP.Secondly, we test the change of responses between 1st bound and 2nd bound by using nonparametric method. We decide to use Gehan's test statistics W to do hypothesis test. This statistics are modified by Mantel and good for testing the sameness of distribution between two samples. This statistics also can be used even in the case that samples are arbitrary left or right censoring.We now suggest new method applying bootstrap method to nonparametric test and do hypothesis test by this new method. As a result, in 6 survey area, except one survey area, we reject the null hypothesis that the difference of responses between 1st bound and 2nd bound is not significant statistically at 5% significance level. So, we conclude that when estimating WTP by using double bounded version of CVM, change of responses between 1st bound and 2nd bound generates in these area.Finally, from our results of tests, we think that we have to take the change of responses into account to build new model when using double bounded version of CVM. This is our rested problem.

In this paper, we reexamine and evaluate effects on local living condition of the farm road project such as ‘Southern-Kawachi Green-Road of Osaka-’. We applied a contingent valuation (CV) method based on a ladder approach like a payment card format. We obtained a non-parametric estimate as well as parametric estimate. This study is the first trial of a non-parametric estimate by a ladder approach in Japan. As a result, the mean WTP estimated for living facility of Greene-Road is 1051 yen per year. The median WTP is 804 yen as well.

Kumamoto Area is so rich in groundwater that it is possible to supply all their residential water for a population of about 900, 000 from groundwater. Such plentiful supply of groundwater is coursed by geological features and land use in Kumamoto Area. However, in this area, groundwater level has been getting lower in recent years and we are anxious about a water shortage in the future. Now, some policies for maintenance of groundwater recharge function have been investigated.The main theme of this paper is economical evaluation for maintenance of groundwater recharge function. To do this, we estimated WTP for maintenance of this function by using CVM. In the economical evaluation process, I carried out questionnaire survey for residents in Kumamoto City because they will pay the cost of the policy based on the beneficiary payment principle. Consequently, the total WTP was estimated about 3, 260, 400, 000 yen per year by using medium of WTP.

In this Paper, we try to set up a hypothesis test about benefit transfer of rural amenity benefit in regional water resource program without depending on external criteria and parametric assumptions. And we also try to propose an objective procedure that can explain how benefit transfer comes into existence by developing the algorithm that can set up a nonparametric-hypothesis test effectively.Concretely, in 19 survey areas, we test the sameness about double-bounded CV responses by using Schemper's nonparametric k-sample test statistics. And we also test the sameness about responses by depending on two external criteria (where we use improvement contents and agricultural classification as external criteria) to compare the outcome.The findings could be summarized as follows: 1) benefit transfer is founded among many areas and 19 survey areas are classified into 4 clusters; 2) in setting up a hypothesis test about benefit transfer, using only two external criteria is not sufficient; 3) therefore, the objective procedure we propose would play a great role in testing benefit transfer.

The contingent travel cost method is the method of evaluating the change of environmental quality, which combines the contingent valuation method (CVM) and the travel cost method. The contingent travel cost method has been rarely applied especially in Japan. Therefore we don't have enough knowledge on how to present the information of the effect by the public work that we should evaluate. The purpose of this article is to examine whether answers are influenced by a difference in the visual information. We prepared for two kinds of information; one is illustrations and the other is illustrations and photographs. It becomes clear that there is a difference in an answer response by a difference in a way of presenting information.

Travel cost method has been used to evaluate recreational benefits. This method needs individual information about visit on recreation site. In general, these are two ways to gain such information. One is on-site survey, the other is off-site survey. But on-site data bok information about visitors who had never visited the site during the survey periods. So, using off-site data, we discussed travel cost methods estimation and benefit evaluation. We set up 3 models; model A contained 0 visits data, model B excluded 0 visits data, model C excluded Ovisits data and considered truncation, and compared them using AIC. Results exhibited model A was more desirable than the other two models. We also used model A to evaluate recreation benefits derived by individual visitors to the Kurondo park and Else Hoshida park. Result estimated average consumer surplus per visit is 3, 125 and 1, 851 yen and the total economic value of recreational benefits was estimated at 7.2 and 16.1 million yen annually. The conclusion is that not using 0 visits data in travel cost model lead to overestimates recreational benefit.

This paper focuses on the problem in choosing a measure of central tendency in the valuation on the public agricultural projects. In general, total benefits of projects are evaluated by multiplying numbers of households who enjoy it by values of the measure. Because the choice of measures could vary the resulting value, considering it is important work. In this paper we focus on the selection between the mean and the madian, and we take two approach to it. One is the welfare economic approach and another is the statistical approach.

The purpose of the paper is to derive a formula to calculate exact welfare measures from Roback's hedonic price models and to apply it to the externality of rice paddy fields. The formula is an extension of Horowitz's result on Rosen's hedonic price models.This paper briefly surveys the methodological progress of hedonic approach.Main findings of the application are that the compensating variation, that is the willingness to accept compensation, WAC, to 1% decrease of rice paddy field in Kyoto prefecture is annually 35, 000 yen per household and that the individual and aggregate WAC amount to 12 yen and 768, 000 yen per hector. The graph also shows that the WAC is proportional to the percentage decrease of rice paddy fields.

In the paper the authors statistically investigate the willingness to pay for various functions of agriculture and forestry in mountainous regions. We apply the contingent valuation method to the persons who were born in, have grown in and left from mountainous regions in Wakayama prefecture. Four functions are valued, such as land conservation, rural landscape creation, rural tradition inheriting, and festival maintenance. For example, the average individual willingness to pay for land conservation is 3, 152 yen per year. The aggregated willingness to pay reaches 4 hundred million yen.We clarify the relation of socioeconomic characteristics of individuals to their willingness to pay.Next we consider the significant difference between the following two samples. One is of the above-mentioned peoples, and the other is of the urban residents in Wakayama prefecture who have already studied in Shinbo and Asano (1993) . The former values the functions much higher than the latter. Through the precise statistical procedure like normality tests, the Wilcoxon test, and the bootstrap method, we finally get the 99 % confidence interval of the difference, 702-1, 512 yen.There are two possible explanations. One is the meaning difference of agriculture and forestry in the regions between two samples. The existence and maintenance of the rural communities in the regions is especially important for the former. Agriculture and forestry is the foundation of communities in the mountainous regions. Also, other nonuse values like the option value and the bequest value should not be overlook. The other is the informational difference about the functions. In this respect, the PR policy may have significant effects.

In the paper, we state the concept of resource and localized resource, and define the localized agricultural and forestry resources as available goods and services for agriculture and forestry in specific region. And we classify functions of the localized agricultural and forestry resource, paying attention to two characteristics, non-rivalness and non-excludability of resource.We take up the survey method, the voting method, the utility function method, the hedonic method and the travel cost method as the representaitive means evaluating benefits of the goods, which are difficult to measure by its market prices, and investigate theoretical backgrounds, availabilities and problems.Finally, we apply the hedonic method to eveluate the social benefit of the localized agricultural and forestry resources such as paddy fields, ordinary fields and forest in the urban Kinki district. We adopt a model separating farm households from non-farm households to satisfy the assumption of homogeneity of the preferences, and test it by Chow test. We apply the SUR to estimate the hedonic price functions. The estimated net benefit turns out to be two trillion two hundred billion yen in 1985.

Recently, participatory planning and planning tools (techniques) have been developed in the field of rural planning. The purpose of this paper is to clear high applicability of Total Quality Control (TQC) methodolgy to participatory planning in order to advance the methodology of the rural planning.At first, the several planning tools in participatory planning are reviewed, and those characteristics and roles in the planning process are discussed. Some problems are also pointed out.Secondly, the methodology of problem-solving in the field of Quality Control (QC) is examined and its characteri-stics are discused. In Japan, QC was introduced into manufacturing industies after the World War II. After that, the QC activities have been spread over the various industries, and the TQC has been developed. Then the very practical and generalized methodology for problem-solving has been established in TQC.At last, applicability of TQC's know-hows to the participatory planning is examined. Both the participatory planning in plan-making and 'QC cercle' in enterprises, that is a form of TQC activities, are based on 'small group activities'. The immediate purpose of both activities is to solve the facing problems and the final purpose is to develop their human capabilities. The roles of the tools of the both activities are almost the same. So, the author would like to assert that there is high applicability of TQC methodology and tools to participatory planning and that those TQC's know-hows must be available for advancing participatory planning methodology.