Place attachment and preferences for landbased wind power : a discrete choice experiment

Economists have neglected place attachment as a potential explanation for people's preferences for environmental goods. We conducted the first discrete choice experiment to assess the place attachment concept in the valuation of and response to the place-specific environmental impact from a proposed wind farm in Norway. Place attachment increases required compensation for accepting the wind farm, strengthens resistance, and leads to a higher propensity to systematically choose the status quo option of no wind farm in the discrete choice experiment. This finding suggests that the so-called "not-in-my-backyard" (NIMBY) effect should be recognized as a rational response when people place a high value on local environmental amenities, including place identity and a sense of place.