Controlling for Biases in Primary Valuation Studies: A Meta-analysis of International Coral Reef Values

This paper updates the existing meta-analysis in coral reef recreation taking into account the previous work of Brander et al. (2007) but considering some stated preference biases and/or effects. The present meta-analysis uses twice the number of observations as the previous one and sheds more light in understanding the influence of these common biases and/or effects found in valuations. The results show the common biases/effects in varied methodology types significantly influence the willingness to pay (WTP) estimates and in turn this has implications in welfare and benefit transfer at local, regional and global levels.