Valuing Ecosystem Services

David A. Starrett

Working Papers from Stanford University, Department of Economics

Abstract: April 1, 1998

We develop the economist's concept of value as opportunity cost and discuss the ways in which decisions imply values through revealed preference. We distinguish between the ideas of incremental and total value and argue that only the former is of importance in practical decision-making. The relationship between price and value is articulated and related to the distinction between public and private goods. Finally, we enumerate the various ways economists use to determine the value of ecosystem services–these include use of prices, methods of revealed preference, voting schemes and contingent valuation.

Date: Written 1998-04-01
View list of references

Downloads: (external link)
http://www-econ.stanford.edu/faculty/workp/swp98006.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Stanford University, Department of Economics
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Thomas Krichel ().