Multi-Attribute Choice Modeling of Australia’s Rivers and Wetlands: A Meta-Analysis of Ten Years of Research

A meta-analysis is presented of the empirical findings of 10 years of choice experiment applications to water and wetland management issues in Australia. A random effects Tobit model is estimated to investigate the suitability of using existing willingness to pay (WTP) values derived from estimated choice models for the purpose of benefits transfer. The random effects model outperforms the fixed effects model in terms of predictive power. An analysis of variance reveals that the survey method, sample size, and statistical model are important determinants of estimation precision and error. The use of different attributes, measurement units and levels in choice experiments makes it hard to compare WTP values for environmental attributes from different studies. The benefits associated with current and possible future use of the water resources are valued significantly higher than the nonuse benefits. Except for the systematically lower values for the Fitzroy, WTP values are more or less transferable across catchments. Other important control variables when transferring the results from choice models across water and wetland policy contexts include income levels of the population of beneficiaries and methodological study characteristics such as the number of choice tasks in the choice experiment.