"I didn’t count WTP as part of the value": Respondents’ perspective on willingness to pay – an inductive approach

Isacs, Lina (författare): KTH,Skolan för arkitektur och samhällsbyggnad (ABE)

Håkansson, Cecilia (författare): KTH,Hållbar utveckling, miljövetenskap och teknik

Lindahl, Therese (författare): The Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, The Royal Swedish Academy of Science

Gunnarsson-Östling, Ulrika, Docent, 1977- (författare): KTH,Hållbar utveckling, miljövetenskap och teknik

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Abstract Ämnesord

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This paper sheds new light on the willingness to pay-concept (WTP) by taking the perspective of respondents as the departure point and exploring WTP’s accuracy with respect to the framework of “the total economic value” (TEV), upon which much of stated preference studies’ (SP) unique role in welfare analysis depends. Based on follow-up interviews with respondents to an SP survey, we use an inductive, interpretive approach and empirically show that WTP is not a suitable measure of the total value of an environmental change to society. Two findings support this claim. Firstly, to the interviewees it seemed hard to even imagine that we would equate the value of the environmental improvement with their WTP. Secondly, once they understood how their WTP could come to be used in cost-benefit analysis, they did not accept it. Our results suggest that it is more credible to refer to WTP as a measure of a subset of the value of an environmental change, rather than a “total” value. If it is used, we advocate that it is complemented with other value indicators, and that the typical reference to aggregate WTP as a measure of social welfare is avoided.

Av författaren/redakt...: Isacs, Lina; Håkansson, Cecil ...; Lindahl, Therese; Gunnarsson-Östli ...

Om ämnet

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP: SAMHÄLLSVETENSKA ...; och Ekonomi och näri ...; och Nationalekonomi

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