Paying for Permanence: Public Preferences for Contaminated Site Cleanup

Anna Alberini, Stefania Tonin, Margherita Turvani and Aline Chiabai

No 12208, Sustainability Indicators and Environmental Valuation Working Papers from Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM)

Abstract: We use conjoint choice questions to investigate people's preferences for income and reductions in mortality risks delivered by contaminated site remediation policies. Our survey is self-administered using the computer by residents of four cities in Italy with severely contaminated sites. We estimate the Value of a Statistical Life to be about 5.6 million for an immediate risk reduction. If the risk reduction takes place 20 years from now, however, the implied VSL is about 1.26 million. The discount rate implicit in the responses to the conjoint choice questions is about 7%. People are willing to pay for permanent risk reductions, but not just any amount. Risk reductions in the nearer future are valued more highly than risk reductions in the more distant future. We also find that the VSL is 'individuated', in the sense that it depends on observable individual characteristics of the respondents, familiarity with contaminated sites, concern about the health effects of exposure to toxicants, having a family member with cancer, perceived usefulness of possible government actions, and the respondent's beliefs about the goals of government remediation programs. Additional questions suggest that respondents discount lives, and do so at a discount rate in the ballpark of that implicit in their risk v. money tradeoffs.

Keywords: Environmental; Economics; and; Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 52
Date: 2006
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/12208/files/wp060113.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Paying for permanence: Public preferences for contaminated site cleanup (2007)
Working Paper: Paying for Permanence: Public Preferences for Contaminated Site Cleanup (2006)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:feemsi:12208

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.12208

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