Market simulation and the provision of public goods: A non-paternalistic response to anomalies in environmental evaluation

Robert Sugden

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2009, vol. 57, issue 1, 87-103

Abstract: Most normative economics assumes that individuals have coherent preferences. This paper responds to growing evidence of failures of this assumption, particularly in the context of stated-preference methods widely used in environmental policy analysis. It proposes a non-paternalistic concept of consumer sovereignty that does not assume preference coherence, is satisfied by competitive markets, and can be applied to the provision of public goods. A key implication is that decisions should reflect valuations revealed 'at the point of consumption'. Such valuations, which can be inferred from hedonic prices, may be less susceptible to willingness-to-accept (WTA)/willingness-to-pay (WTP) disparities than those elicited by stated-preference methods.

Keywords: Market; simulation; Public; goods; Paternalism; Environmental; evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095-0696(08)00081-8
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:57:y:2009:i:1:p:87-103

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management is currently edited by M.A. Cole, A. Lange, D.J. Phaneuf, D. Popp, M.J. Roberts, M.D. Smith, C. Timmins, Q. Weninger and A.J. Yates

More articles in Journal of Environmental Economics and Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().