The concept of ecosystem services has become increasingly influential in conservation policy, uniting natural and social scientists in efforts to develop values for environmental benefits consistent with underlying ecological and social processes. Understanding the consequences for ecosystem...

This paper traces the history of the "Value of Statistical Life" (VSL), which today is used routinely in benefit-cost analysis of life-saving investments. The "value of statistical life" terminology was introduced by Thomas Schelling (1968) in his essay, "The Life You Save May Be Your Own."...

The economics of fiscal federalism has identified two book-end departures from first-best provision of a public good. Local governments may respond to local conditions, but ignore inter-jurisdictional spillovers. Alternatively, central governments may internalize spillovers, but impose uniform...

This paper demonstrates how a new framework, using the necessary conditions for a locational equilibrium, offers the potential to transform this policy landscape. We demonstrate in this paper that the framework can be used as part of a benefit analysis of current environmental policy...

When external effects are important, markets will be inefficient, and economists have considered several broad classes of economic instruments to correct these inefficiencies. However, the standard economic analysis has tended to neglect important distinctions and interactions between the...

The purpose of this paper is to report a new approach for measuring the general equilibrium willingness to pay for large changes in spatially delineated public goods such as air quality. We estimate the parameters of a locational equilibrium model and compute equilibria for alternative scenarios...

As they embraced benefit-cost analysis during the mid twentieth century, economists faced several challenges. One challenge was to reconcile two visions for the place of the economist in policy analysis, one limited to providing positive analysis for decision-makers, the other allowing normative...

This article provides a graphical explanation for one of the most important restrictions to utility functions used in revealed preference approaches for measuring the demand for public goods and product quality-weak complementarity. It also describes how the Willig condition is an important...

For 20 years acid rain in the Adirondack Park has been a central issue in the debate about clean air regulation. Based on a contingent valuation survey of New York residents, our study quantifies the total economic value of expected ecological improvements in the park from forthcoming policies....