Valuing the Environment: Methodological and Measurement Issues

This book contains a collection of papers on environmental valuation resulting from the authors' joint research work in the program `Environment, Science and Society' conducted under the auspices of the European Science Foundation, with whose cooperation the book has been published. In the first part this book focuses on conceptual issues of environmental valuation involving the stock-flow dynamics of pollution, environmental services as productive factors, the appropriateness of the expected utility approach for unlikely high-damage risks, the concept of option value, and the valuation of environmental health effects. Turning to measurement issues, a comparative analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of several valuation methods is carried out -- with a special emphasis on survey techniques. Energy-related valuation procedures are also discussed, and their potential for environmental valuation is demonstrated. Rather than applying valuation techniques in specific case studies this book scrutinizes the foundations of valuation methodology and assesses the validity and reliability of available techniques. It is therefore of great interest for both researchers and teachers in the field of environmental valuation