Using Contingent Valuation to Measure the Compensation Required to Gain Community Acceptance of a Lulu: the Case of a Hazardous Waste Disposal Facility

This article examines an application of the contingent valuation (CV) method to Abstract measure the compensation required for the siting of a hazardous waste disposal facility. First, the risk valuation literature on the siting of a hazardous waste facility is discussed. In this section, the authors discuss past studies using contingent valuation techniques and the importance of subjective risk assessment. Second, a contingent valuation survey is performed to measure willingness to accept (WTA) using a dichotomous choice referendum framework. Using these data, the authors test for the internal consistency of the responses and calculate the WTA for siting a hazardous waste disposal facility. The authors conclude that CV can be used to estimate reasonable measures of WTA and is a potentially useful tool for assessing the compensation required to site a hazardous waste disposal facility.