Abstract
A criticism often levied against stated preference (SP) valuation results is that they sometimes do not display sensitivity to differences in the magnitude or scope of the good being valued. In this study, we test the sensitivity of preferences for several proposed expanded protection programs that would protect up to three US Endangered Species Act-listed species: the Puget Sound Chinook salmon, the smalltooth sawfish, and the Hawaiian monk seal. An external scope test is employed via a split-sample SP choice experiment survey to evaluate whether there is a significant difference in willingness to pay (WTP) for protecting more species and/or achieving greater improvements in the status of the species. The majority of 46 scope tests indicate sensitivity to scope, and the pattern of scope test failures is consistent with diminishing marginal utility with respect to the amount of protection to each species. Further tests suggest WTP may be proportional to the number of species valued.
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Abbreviations
- CV:
-
Contingent valuation
- SP:
-
Stated preference
- SPCE:
-
Stated preference choice experiment
- WTP:
-
Willingness to pay
- HMS:
-
Hawaiian monk seal
- SS:
-
Smalltooth sawfish
- PSC:
-
Puget sound chinook
- RPL:
-
Random parameters logit
- TEV:
-
Type I extreme value
- E:
-
Endangered status
- T:
-
Threatened status
- R:
-
Recovered status
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The authors would like to thank Rita Curtis, Todd Lee, Vic Adamowicz, George Parsons, John Whitehead, Rob Hicks, Ron Felthoven, Michelle McGregor, John Horowitz, an anonymous reviewer, and participants at the 2009 Western Agricultural Economics Association meeting for useful comments on this work. All remaining errors, if any, are our own. This research was conducted under Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission grant #NA04NMF4370384. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are the authors’ own, and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or the US Department of Commerce.
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Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
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Lew, D.K., Wallmo, K. External Tests of Scope and Embedding in Stated Preference Choice Experiments: An Application to Endangered Species Valuation. Environ Resource Econ 48, 1–23 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-010-9394-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-010-9394-1