The Definition and Choice of Environmental Commodities for Nonmarket Valuation

James Boyd and Alan Krupnick ()
Additional contact information
Alan Krupnick: Resources for the Future

RFF Working Paper Series from Resources for the Future

Abstract: Economic analyses of nature must somehow define the “environmental commodities” to which values are attached. This paper articulates a set of principles to guide the choice and interpretation of nonmarket commodities. We describe how complex natural systems can be decomposed consistent with what can be called “ecological production theory.” Ecological production theory--like conventional production theory--distinguishes between biophysical inputs, process, and outputs. We argue that a systems approach to the decomposition and presentation of natural commodities can inform and possibly improve the validity of nonmarket environmental valuation studies. We raise concerns about the interpretation, usefulness, and accuracy of benefit estimates derived without reference to ecological production theory.

Keywords: nonmarket valuation; stated preference; revealed preference; commodities; endpoints (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q30 Q51 Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-09-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.rff.org/RFF/documents/RFF-DP-09-35.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (http://www.rff.org/RFF/documents/RFF-DP-09-35.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.rff.org/RFF/documents/RFF-DP-09-35.pdf)

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:rff:dpaper:dp-09-35

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in RFF Working Paper Series from Resources for the Future Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Resources for the Future ().