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Join us online July 11 & 12, 2023, 1:00 p.m. ET to 3:30 p.m. ET for Valuing Nonmarket Benefits. Presenters Vic Adamowicz, Cathy Kling, Nic Kuminoff, Dan Phaneuf, Christian Vossler, and John Whitehead will provide a primer of the field including both the theoretical basis and current state of best practice for the most common methods. Core topics include basic welfare theory, stated preference methods, hedonic property value approaches, recreation demand modeling, hedonic wage studies, benefit transfer, the value of risk reduction, and other special topics.
Description: The development of methods to estimate welfare changes for use in benefit-cost analysis began as a nascent field in the U.S. in the middle of the 20th century to support decision making for environmental investments. It then progressed as part of regulatory impact analyses required under multiple presidential executive orders beginning with EO 12291 issued by the Reagan administration. At the same time, the valuation of ecosystem services and natural capital throughout the European community expanded quickly with the U.K. Treasury “Green Book” and E.U. Water Framework Directive. Methodological improvements followed rapidly for both stated and revealed preference methods, leading to the now relatively mature set of methods available to practitioners.
These methods are being routinely applied to support benefit-cost analysis of regulatory programs, prioritization of conservation spending in government and non-governmental organizations, natural resource damage assessment, and private firm’s analyses of sustainability issues in their sector.
In this workshop, we provide a primer of the field including both the theoretical basis and current state of best practice for the most common methods. Core topics include basic welfare theory, stated preference methods, hedonic property value approaches, recreation demand modeling, hedonic wage studies, benefit transfer, the value of risk reduction, and other special topics. The workshop is intended for professionals and analysts who use the results of these studies in their work and wish to better understand the basics of these methods. The course should also serve as a refresher for those who have been away from the field and applications for some time and are looking for a brief review of the current state of the art.
I’m covering benefit transfer.
