Spatial discounting of ecosystem services

Rintaro Yamaguchi and Payal Shah

Resource and Energy Economics, 2020, vol. 62, issue C

Abstract: The impact of conservation efforts targeted at preserving ecosystem services largely depend on the welfare implications associated with spatial variations in the provision of ecosystem services. While there is ample empirical evidence of spatial discounting or decay of the valuation of ecosystem services, there are still few underpinnings based on welfare economic theory. We establish a theory of spatial discounting that closely follows the concept of time discounting pertaining to climate change, and show spatial discount rates in the consumption, ecosystem service, and willingness to pay (WTP) numeraires. We consider the role of key parameters such as pure rate of spatial preference, consumption change, ecosystem services change, population density, and elasticity of marginal utility. We find that the spatial discount rate of WTP for ecosystem services that frequently appears in the empirical literature is the difference between the ecosystem service discount rate and consumption discount rate, where the ecosystem service discount rate includes both physical distance decay and welfare effects. Finally, we use numerical simulations to illustrate how the three different spatial discount rates vary with the spatial distance from the source of ecosystem services and with consumption patterns, implying many more possible spatial variations of WTP.

Keywords: Spatial discounting; Discounting; Spatial decay; Ecosystem services; Welfare economic theory; Willingness to pay; Benefit transfer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 C22 O43 Q20 Q30 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:resene:v:62:y:2020:i:c:s0928765519302945

DOI: 10.1016/j.reseneeco.2020.101186

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