Abstract
One of the central themes in the field of environmental economics has been the valuation of environmental amenities, usually within the framework of benefit cost analysis (BCA) or natural resource damage assessment. Much of the research associated with BCA has sought to expand the types of benefits that can be quantified and measured in money terms. The result has been a broadened interpretation of the norms of conventional BCA (i.e. the dual assumptions of individual utility maximization from consumption and the expression of value through market transactions). With these advances, there has been a progressive movement of commodities from the set without measures (usually designated as intangibles) to the set with measures. For example, recreational services associated with water resource projects, were regarded as intangible until the development of the travel cost method (TCM) for estimating the demand for outdoor recreation sites (Clawson and Knetsch, 1966; Desvouges et al., 1983; McConnell, 1985). Currently, attention has been focused on one major category of intangibles in BCA: nonuse values (NUV) associated with natural environmental resources.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andreoni, J. (1989) Giving with impure altruism: applications to charity and Ricardian equivalence, Journal Political Economy 97 (61), 1447–1458.
Arrow, K. J. and Fisher, A. C. (1974) Environmental preservation, uncertainty, and irreversibility, Quarterly Journal of Economics 88, 313–319.
Bergstrom, T. C., Blume, L., and Varian, H. (1986) On the private provision of public goods, Journal of Public Economics 29, 789–793.
Bishop R. C. (1982) Option value: An exposition and extension, Land Economics 58 (1), 1–15.
Boyle, K. J. and Bishop, R. C. (1987) Valuing wildlife in benefit cost analysis: A case study involving endangered species, Water Resources Research 23, 943–950.
Cameron, T. A. and Englin, J. (1990) Existence, option and user demands for non-market resources, Department of Economics, UCLA/Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories, mimeo.
Clawson, M. and Knetsch, J. L. (1966) Economics of Outdoor Recreation. John Hopkins University Press for Resources for the Future, Baltimore.
Cummings, R. G. and Harrison, G. W. (1992) Identifying and measuring nonuse values for natural and environmental resources: A critical review of the state of the art, Final Report to the American Petroleum Institute, Department of Economics, University of New Mexico, mimeo.
Desvousges, W. H., Smith, V. K., and McGivney, M. P. (1983) A Comparison of Alternative Approaches for Estimating Recreation and Related Benefits of Water Quality Improvements, Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.
Fisher, A. C. and Hanemann, W. M. (1987) Quasi-option value: Some misconceptions dispelled, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 14 (2), 183–190.
Fisher, A. and Raucher, R. (1984) Intrinsic benefits of improved water quality: Conceptual and empirical perspectives, in V. K. Smith and A. Dryden Witte (eds.), Advances in Applied Microenconomics, JAI Press, Greenwich, Conn.
Freeman III, M. A. (1979) The Benefits of Environmental Improvement: Theory and Practice, Resources for the Future, Baltimore.
Freeman III, M. A. (1990) Non-use values in natural resource damage assessment, Resources for the Future/Bowdoin College, mimeo.
Hoevenagel, R. (1994) An assessment of the contingent valuation method (this volume).
Johansson, P.-O. (1987) The Economic Theory and Measurement of Environmental Benefits, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Johansson, P.-O. (1994) Valuation and aggregation (this volume).
Johnson, E. R. (1991) Measuring existence values: Environmental altruism and the missing behavioral link, Research Triangle Institute/U.S. Naval Academy, mimeo.
Kopp, R. J. (1991) The proper role of existence value in public decision making, Resources for the Future, Discussion Paper QE91–17.
Krutilla, J. V. (1967) Conservation reconsidered, American Economic Review 57 (4), 777–786.
Loehman, E. (1991) Alternative measures of benefit for non-market goods which are substitutes for market goods, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, mimeo.
Long, M. F. (1967) Collective consumption services of individual consumption goods: Comment, Quarterly Journal of Economics 81 (May), 351–352.
Madriaga, B. and McConnell, K. E. (1987) Exploring existence value, Water Resources Research 23 (5), 936–942.
Mäler, K.-G. (1974) Environmental Economics: A Theoretical Inquiry, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
Mäler, K.-G. (1989) Valuation of costs and benefits from resource use, The World Bank, Washington, mimeo.
Mäler, K.-G. (1992) Private correspondence.
McConnell, K. E. (1983) Existence and bequest value, in R. D. Rowe and L. G. Chestnut (eds.), Managing Air Quality and Scenic Resources at National Parks and Wilderness Areas, Westview Press, Boulder, U.S.A.
McConnell, K. E. (1985) The economics of outdoor recreation in A. V. Kneese and J. L. Sweeney (eds.), Handbook of Natural Resource and Energy Economics, Vol. 2, North-Holland, Amsterdam.
Milgrom, P. R. (1992) Is sympathy an economic value? Philosophy, economics and the contingent valuation method, Department of Economics, Stanford University, mimeo.
Mitchell, R. C. and Carson, R. T. (1989) Using Surveys to Value Public Goods, Resources for the Future, Washington, D.C.
Norton, B. G. (1982) Environmental ethics and nonhuman rights, Environmental Ethics 4, 17–36.
Pearce, D. W. and Markandya, A. (1989) The Benefits of Environmental Policy, OECD, Paris.
Pearce, D. W. and Turner, V. K. (1990) Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment, Harvester, Wheatsheaf, London.
Quiggin, J. (1991) A research program for a critique of total valuation, University of Maryland/Australian National University, mimeo.
Randall, A. (1991) Total and non-use values, in J. B. Braden and C. D. Kolstad (eds.), Measuring Demand for Environmental Quality, Elsevier, Amsterdam
Randall, A. and Stoll, J. R. (1983) Existence value in a total valuation framework, in R. D. Rowe and L. G. Chestnut (eds.), Managing Air Quality and Scenic Resources at National Parks and Wilderness Areas, Westview Press, Boulder, U.S.A.
Rescher, N. (1980) Unpopular Essays on Technical Progress. University of Pittsburg Press, Pittsburgh.
Roberts, R. D. (1984) A positive model of private charity and public transfers, Journal of Political Economy 92 (February), 136–148.
Rosenthal, D. H. and Nelson, R. H. (1992) Why existence value should not be used in cost—benefit analysis, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 11 (1), 116–122.
Sagoff, M. (1980) On the preservation of species, Columbia Journal of Environmental Law 7, 33–67.
Shechter, M. (1991) A comparative study of environmental amenity valuations, Environmental and Resource Economics 1 (2), 129–155.
Shechter, M. and Kim, M. (1991) Valuation of pollution abatement benefits: Direct and indirect measurement. Journal of Urban Economics 30, 133–151.
Schulze, W. D., Brookshire, D. S., Walther, E. G., McFarland, K. K., Thayer, M. A., Whitworth, R. L., Ben-David, S., Malm, W., and Molenar, J. (1983) The economic benefits of preserving visibility in the National Parklands of the Southwest, Natural Resources Journal 23, 149–173.
Schulze, W. D., d’Arge, R. C., Brookshire, D. S. (1981) Valuing environmental commodities: Some recent experiments, Land Economics 57 (2), 151–172.
Smith, V. K. (1987a) Non-use value in benefit—cost analysis and the treatment of option value, Southern Economic Journal, 54 (1), 19–26.
Smith, V. K. (1987b) Uncertainty, benefit—cost analysis, and the treatment of option value, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 14 (3), 283–292.
Smith, V. K. (1991) Household production functions and environmental benefit estimation, in J. B. Braden and C. D. Kolstad (eds.), Measuring Demand for Environmental Quality, Elsevier, Amsterdam.
Smith, V. K. (1992) Private correspondence.
Sudgen, R. (1984) Reciprocity: The supply of public goods through voluntary contributions, Economic Journal 94, 772–787.
Svento, R. (1994) Welfare measurement under uncertainty, (this volume).
Van Der Veer, D. and Pierce, C. (1986) People, Penguins, and Plastic Trees: Basic Issues in Environmental Ethics, Wadsworth, Belmont, U.S.A.
Walsh, R. G., Sanders, L. D., and Loomis, J. B. (1985) Wild and Scenic River Economics: Recreation Use and Preservation Values, American Wilderness Alliance, Englewood, U.S.A.
Weisbrod, B. A. (1964) Collective consumption services of individual consumption goods, Quarterly Journal of Economics 78, 471–477.
Zeidner, M. and Shechter, M. (1988) Psychological responses towards air pollution: Some personality and demographic correlates, Journal of Environmental Psychology 8, 191–208.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Shechter, M., Freeman, S. (1994). Nonuse Value: Reflections on the Definition and Measurement. In: Pethig, R. (eds) Valuing the Environment: Methodological and Measurement Issues. Environment, Science and Society, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8317-6_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8317-6_7
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4345-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-015-8317-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive