Contingent Valuation for Projects of Water Resources Improvements

The use of the contingent valuation method (CVM) policy analysis has grown significantly in the last two decades, with applications to a variety of public goods. The primary purpose of this paper is to present an application of the CVM to the valuation of projects for the improvement of some important Brazilian river basin. This application is based on referendum questions in the so-called bidding games format. The use of this question format motivated the application of a bootstrap procedure to obtain standard errors of the parameters estimates and of the willingness to pay estimate. Additionally, basic issues concerning the design of CVM applications are discussed