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Wildlife‐friendly produce shows promise in addressing the disconnect between consumers' choices and the loss of biodiversity from agriculture. However, the scope of programs and their contribution to conservation remain limited. An improved understanding of specific markets, combined with auspicious scenarios, could address this. In Australia's Murray‐Darling Basin, rice fields support the largest known breeding population of the Australasian bittern, a globally endangered waterbird. We surveyed 1478 Australian consumers about their values for "bittern‐friendly" rice. To help support successful bittern breeding, consumers' mean willingness‐to‐pay for a 1‐kg product, normally $3.00, was $4.12—a premium of 37%—while the inferred valuation for their nearest neighbor was $3.79, a 26% premium. In a choice experiment, rice directly sourced from bittern‐friendly rice growers attracted the highest premium, approaching 200%, but conventional rice with indirect support for bittern‐friendly growers was also highly valued. Consumers valued endorsement and certification labels from all organizations more than individual ones, and would pay additional premiums for reduced pesticide use or organic products. Feasibility of broad‐scale, consumer‐funded incentive programs is emphasized by an engaging narrative and a supportive, cohesive rice industry. Similar opportunities likely exist where consumers can be central to endangered species conservation, expanding wildlife‐friendly farming coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate consumer preference and willingness to pay for mobile teledermoscopy services in Australia. Methods: Consumers who were taking part in a randomised controlled trial comparing mobile teledermoscopy and skin self-examination were asked to complete a survey which incorporated a discrete choice experiment (DCE) and a contingent valuation question. Responses were used to determine their willingness to pay for mobile teledermoscopy services in Australia and their overall service preferences. Results: The 199 consumers who responded were 71% female and had a mean age of 42 years (range, 18–73). The DCE results showed that consumers prefer a trained medical professional to be involved in their skin cancer screening. Consumers were willing to pay AUD 41 to change from a general practitioner reviewing their lesions in-person to having a dermatologist reviewing the teledermoscopy images. Additionally, they were willing to pay for services that had shorter waiting times, that reduced the time away from their usual activities, and that have higher accuracy and lower likelihood of unnecessary excision of a skin lesion. When asked directly about their willingness to pay for a teledermoscopy service using a contingent valuation question, the majority (73%) of consumers selected the lowest two value brackets of AUD 1–20 or AUD 21–40. Conclusion: Consumers are willing to pay out of pocket to access services with attributes such as a dermatologist review, improved accuracy, and fewer excisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stopover tourism is an important but neglected area of study. This article combines a discrete choice experiment with eye-tracking measures and self-stated attribute importance ratings to analyze stopover destination preferences. A sample of Australian residents shows safety is the most critical determinant of stopover destination attractiveness based on both the importance ratings and choice model results, but that it does not receive the greatest amount of visual attention. Seven attributes showed little consistency between the methods. However, when the measures are combined into one choice model, there are insights into associations between ratings, amounts of visual attention, and the final impact of an attribute on the choice outcome. Findings indicate the overall importance of each attribute and show how attribute importance varies across the sample and during the choice process. The article thus illustrates how different measures can be combined to study preferences for destination attributes in a specific travel context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grouping behaviour displayed by animals is usually attributed to predation and foraging‐related benefits. The mechanisms of predator protection and foraging efficiency are diverse and often produce conflicting drivers of grouping behaviour. One key conflict is that between group size and phenotypic oddity. Theoretically, individuals should choose the largest available group due to multiple mechanisms associated with "safety in numbers". However, individuals should also choose the most phenotypically similar group members due to the "predator confusion effect". This conflict is particularly important within the context of mixed‐species groups because, while their formation may facilitate large group size, phenotypic differences between species may be costly due to oddity. To investigate the interacting effects of shoal size, composition and predator presence on grouping decisions, choice experiments were conducted using displaced tropical damselfish, Abudefduf vaigiensis, settling in temperate south‐eastern Australia (termed vagrants) as a model species. Contrary to predictions, A. vaigiensis displayed no preference for single‐ over mixed‐species shoals, with or without a predator present. These results suggest that shoal composition may not be an important driver of shoal choice in this system. Further, A. vaigiensis showed no preference for larger mixed‐species shoals over smaller single‐species shoals. These outcomes are discussed within the context of climate change‐driven redistribution of A. vaigiensis in temperate south‐eastern Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is seen as a transition from mobility being satisfied by a dominant car ownership model to a service model where mobility needs are met by a multimodal suite of services. The research environment of MaaS is heavily driven by the younger generation's travel behaviour which appears to be less dominated by car ownership (following the peak car literature) and by their interest in all things technological, particularly their smart phones. However, this paper is looking at a different but very specific segment of the population in Australia that have their accessibility provided by Community Transport (CT), focusing specifically on New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland (QLD). Arguably, this population segment is the complete antithesis of the younger generation in terms of chasing technological change but in other ways, for example, a lack of access to private cars, shows some similarities. This paper is motivated by likely changes in funding for CT providers. Currently CT providers receive a supply side subsidy but there are plans to introduce funding to be placed directly with clients, in the form of person centred funding (PCF). Clients will then have a single budget to purchase mobility along with other services they require. The paper investigates the mobility services which comprise bundles that CT clients would be willing to pay in the new era of PCF. Five participating CT providers from a cross section of operating areas recruited clients to take part in a stated choice experiment, processed by a computer assisted personal interview (CAPI). Advanced choice models are used to develop models using the behavioural data collected by the CAPI and estimates of a CT client's willingness to pay (WTP) for the MaaS bundle are presented. WTP provides a ceiling for pricing the elements within a MaaS bundle which is an important part of the CT providers' future strategy. The WTP estimates were much smaller than the CT providers' unit costs of providing the service. This poses a challenge for CT providers in the creation of mobiltiy bundles which cover costs, suggesting that the possible transition to PCF using MaaS bundles will not be an easy process and will require significant education as to the cost of provision. The paper concludes with some suggestions as to how CT providers could make the transition to PCF building on the evidence of this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shifting the production of energy from fossil fuels to renewable resources contributes towards the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions needed for climate change mitigation. Many countries, including Australia, have had generous financial incentives in place to support households to adopt renewable energy technologies, such as rooftop photovoltaic solar panels. Given the increasing reductions in, and eventually a shift, from subsidies to market-based mechanisms the trend of new solar panel adoption is unclear. Solar power is a particularly relevant climate change mitigation technology in Australia given the country's high insolation rates. Australia has one of the highest rates of residential solar adoption in the world with 20% of households having solar panels. This study uses Australia as a case study because of the range of incentives available and the potential impacts of changes in incentive policies which are already under way. To determine preferences for changes in incentives and to predict consumer choices for adopting solar panels under future policy changes, a choice model was applied. Results showed that about two-thirds of the respondents would be willing to install a photovoltaic system. Installation costs had the greatest influence on choice of a photovoltaic system, followed by a 10-year and a 5-year guarantee of being able to sell excess solar power to retailers, and a high feed-in-tariff. Being able to access an interest free loan did not affect respondents' choices, and up-front rebates were preferred to be at least AUD 4000. Income, education, knowledge about Australia's renewable energy polices and believing in environmental benefits of solar energy all positively influenced the willingness to install a photovoltaic system while age had a negative effect. Preferences for financial incentives varied significantly across respondents. About a third of respondents were sufficiently sensitive to costs and incentives that a substantial cut in subsidies would probably dissuade them from installing a photovoltaic system. Younger people and those knowledgeable about renewable energy policies preferred low installation costs but were not motivated by incentives. Factors likely to influence their decision-making included their level of electricity consumption, rising electricity prices and decreasing costs for storage systems, and they may conclude that solar photovoltaic systems pay off even without government subsidies, which are gradually being phased out. • Conducted choice experiment across Australian public. • Installation costs main driver for decision to install solar PV in future. • Strong preference for longer period of time to sell solar energy. • The amount of the tariff for solar energy (FiT) is third driver. • Younger and knowledgeable likely to install PV independently of incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Managers need to give significant weight to the ecological value of urban waterways. • Amenity alone may be a poor substitute for the ecological values of urban waterways. • Urban residents are willing to make non-trivial payments to see waterways improve. There is extensive research to show that humans can benefit in different ways from access to natural landscapes, including access to waterways. However, the rapid pace of urbanization across the globe and changes in the way humans access natural environments makes understanding those benefits increasingly important and also challenging. This study uses a choice experiment to investigate and enumerate the non-market values of waterways in Australia's fastest growing city, Melbourne. The study adds to our understanding of the different values urban residents assign to waterways in developed urban landscapes. Accordingly, the work offers an extension to the emerging 'bluespace' literature. The approach used in the choice experiment also offers a novel way to measure different values within a single experiment. More specifically, a mixed logit model is used to separately and jointly estimate the amenity and ecological values placed on Melbourne's urban waterways. The estimates generated by this study provide a basis for comparing management and policy options as well as guiding economic regulation. The data gathered support the view that managers need to give significant weight to the ecological value of waterways if they seek to raise the welfare of residents. Moreover, we show that adding amenity alone to urban waterways may be a poor substitute for any foregone ecological values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study of the community's acceptance of biodiversity offsets in Australia provides insights relevant to future revisions of offset policies of both State and Commonwealth Governments. A choice experiment was used to measure preferences for the general acceptability of offsetting, and for a number of attributes that define how an offset can be implemented. Based on a sample of 204 respondents from Perth, WA, we found that the majority of respondents did not object to the practice of biodiversity offsetting in general. A minority of respondents preferred that offset actions be direct, but most accepted a combination of direct and indirect actions. Individuals generally preferred that the offset be located near the site of impact, and it became more unacceptable the further away that it was located. However, there was heterogeneity in preferences for protecting the impacted species or a more endangered one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the imminent extinction of many species is predicted, prevention is expensive, and decision-makers often have to prioritise funding. In democracies, it can be argued that conservation using public funds should be influenced by the values placed on threatened species by the public, and that community views should also affect the conservation management approaches adopted. We conducted on online survey with 2400 respondents from the general Australian public to determine 1) the relative values placed on a diverse set of 12 threatened Australian animal species and 2) whether those values changed with the approach proposed to conserve them. The survey included a contingent valuation and a choice experiment. Three notable findings emerged: 1) respondents were willing to pay $60/year on average for a species (95% confidence interval: $23 to $105) to avoid extinction in the next 20 years based on the contingent valuation, and $29 to $100 based on the choice experiment, 2) respondents were willing to pay to reduce the impact of feral animals on almost all presented threatened species, 3) for few species and respondents, WTP was lower when genetic modification to reduce inbreeding in the remaining population was proposed. • Willingness-to-pay was assessed for 12 Australian threatened species simultaneously. • The majority of respondents were willing to pay to avoid extinction. • Willingness to pay increased when respondents could choose the conservation approach. • Strong preference for minimising the impacts of feral animals, which substantially increased willingness-to-pay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we assess residents' preferences for different options of large-scale water sensitive urban improvement of a heritage site in Melbourne, the Main Outfall Sewer (MOS) reserve. We use a hedonic pricing analysis and a discrete choice experiment to understand the benefits associated with improving the MOS reserve. We find that there are significant non-market benefits associated with various options, both in terms of the potential to reflect increases in house value and in terms of people's willingness to pay for improvements in amenity and environmental quality. This information will contribute to determining investment options for this important heritage site. Importantly, we demonstrate the combination of the hedonic and stated choice willingness to pay estimates to provide an aggregate estimate of welfare, revealing a useful approach for greenspace valuation applications where multiple non-market values should be considered. • Non-market valuation of improvement options for a decommissioned heritage site in Melbourne. • Hedonic analysis to capture use values of residents living adjacent to the site. • Complementary choice experiment to capture use and non-use values of residents. • An aggregation method proposed to combine values from both methods. • The aggregate benefit of a high-level upgrade could be as high as $152 million (AUD). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We compare public and expert preferences for biodiversity conservation in Australia. [•] Preferences do not align. [•] Expert-driven conservation planning may therefore not account for public interests. [•] We integrate public non-market values into systematic conservation planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Public scepticism surrounding climate change is an obstacle for implementing climate change mitigation measures in many countries. However, very little is known about: (1) the nature and sources of climate change scepticism; and (2) its influence on preferences for climate change mitigation policies. In this paper, we investigate these two issues using evidence and analysis from an Australian public survey and choice experiment. The study has three key findings. First, the intensity of scepticism varies depending on its type; we observed little scepticism over the cause, trend and impact of climate change and widespread scepticism over the effectiveness of mitigation measures and global co-operation. Second, cause and mitigation scepticism play significant roles in determining public support for climate change abatement. Respondents who believed in human-induced climate change were significantly more supportive of mitigation. Likewise, respondents who believed that mitigation would be successful in slowing down climate change were significantly more likely to be supportive. Third, the general public tend to give the benefit of the doubt to supporting mitigation. Those who expressed higher uncertainty about climate outcomes were more supportive of mitigation than others with similar expectations but lower uncertainty. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The River Murray and the Coorong in Australia have been in a state of decline. With the prospect of extended droughts and shifts in inflows due to climate change, difficult choices loom. The options include halting the decline, triage of some assets along the River or staying with the declining river system. To support decision-making, a survey was designed to elicit willingness to pay for improvements in environmental quality. Over 3000 Australians responded to this survey. The study focuses on key River Murray environmental quality indicators: the frequency of bird breeding along the River Murray, increasing native fish populations in the River Murray, increasing the area of healthy vegetation along the River Murray, and restoring water bird habitat in the Coorong. State/Territory models were jointly estimated using a panel multinomial logit error-components model. Willingness to pay estimates for improvements in environmental quality were calculated for the River Murray and the Coorong. Respondents were found to be willing to pay most for the Coorong and to improve waterbird breeding frequency. Respondents from the Australian Capital Territory were found to have significantly higher willingness to pay whereas those in Victoria had a significantly lower willingness to pay than respondents in other states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia’s system of tropical rivers constitutes one of the largest and least changed drainage networks in the world. However increasing demand for water in parts of Australia, along with ongoing drought, is driving pressure to develop these rivers. This paper reports the results of a choice experiment (CE) to assess the benefits of different management strategies for three tropical rivers in northern Australia: the Daly, Mitchell and Fitzroy Rivers. The CE was carried out using a survey mailed to Australian urban populations. The results showed that 90% of Australians were willing to pay a once-off payment for the management of tropical rivers. Respondents who had visited or lived near the rivers were willing to pay more for cultural, recreational and environmental services than those who had not. Respondents classed as ‘developers’, who made up only 4% of the 684 respondents, considered a substantial income from irrigated agriculture as important. Unlike ‘environmentalists’ and ‘neutrals’, ‘developers’ were unwilling to pay for high quality recreational fishing or for having floodplains in good environmental condition. All groups, however, were willing to pay for high cultural values. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

There is a current debate about development of the river and wetland systems of tropical Australia. Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal residents of tropical river catchment areas have complex values for these systems which are difficult for decision-makers to accommodate. Aboriginal Australians are a large and growing proportion of the population and are also significant landowners, yet there is little information about the impacts of potential development scenarios on the welfare of Aboriginal Australians that can be used in benefit–cost analyses. This paper reports the application of a choice experiment to assess the potential impact of development/management strategies for three tropical rivers in Australia, and explores the differences between the preferences of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians living in the catchment areas. Most respondents preferred healthy river systems that are managed under conservation schemes even if this comes at a private cost. The willingness-to-pay of Aboriginal Australians was significantly higher than that of non-Aboriginal Australians for some river attributes, particularly those related to cultural values. Aboriginal respondents were also indifferent towards the extraction of water for irrigated agriculture while non-Aboriginal respondents preferred moderate rather than large or small scale use. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The emergence of the 'gig' economy is disrupting industries, reshaping the organisation of work and the terms and conditions under which work is carried out. In effect, the terms and conditions of 'gig' work mean that minimum standards, for example minimum wages, that are attached to work in advanced capitalist economies like Australia, regularly do not apply to 'gig' work. This study explores the attitudes and understandings of Australian consumers towards work conditions and entitlements in app-based food-delivery services. The study explores whether consumers are willing to pay to ensure 'gig' workers receive equivalent minimum entitlements and whether an awareness-raising treatment influences their moral consumption behaviours. This is achieved by employing a survey and a choice experiment to assess moral decision-making of consumers. To date, a moral dimension in discrete choice models has been dominated by sustainability in transport, discussed from the perspective of personal lifestyle or adherence to social norm. The study's focus on consumers and their concern for worker entitlements, therefore, makes a unique contribution. Our findings demonstrate that consumers have a very low awareness of worker entitlements in the 'gig' economy. While the choice experiment highlights that a significant proportion of the treatment group was willing to pay more to increase the earnings and conditions of food-delivery workers, at the same time it found that their willingness to pay would unlikely result in a sustained improvement in working conditions and lead to 'decent work' standards. The study further highlights that bridging the boundary between choice modelling methodologies and industrial relations research offers potential insights into the moral motivations behind decisions made by industrial relations actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Cerebral palsy (CP) is a lifelong condition. The CP quality of life (CPQOL) instrument is a frequently used disease-specific instrument to assess health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in people with CP, but it cannot be used to generate quality-adjusted life years (QALY) which are the basis of cost utility analysis (CUA). Generic utility instruments (such as the EQ-5D or SF-6D) that are used to value HRQOL may be insensitive to small but important health changes in children with CP. This study aims to generate a preference-based scoring algorithm for the CP six dimensions (CP-6D), a classification system developed from the CPQOL., Methods and Analysis: A discrete choice experiment with duration (DCEtto) will be administrated to value health states described by the CP-6D classification system. These health states will be presented to members of Australian general population and parents of children with CP via an online survey. Conditional logit regression will be used to produce the utility algorithm for CP-6D., Ethics and Dissemination: The Griffith University Human Research Ethics Committee approved for the study (reference HREC/number 2018/913). The developed algorithm can be applied to previous and future economic evaluation of interventions and treatments targeting people with CP which have used either the CPQOL or CP-6D., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)