Can Deliberative Approaches Make the Difference in Groundwater Economics and Management? Some First Evidence

Abstract

Deliberative monetary valuation (DMV) has emerged as a means to address the shortcomings of conventional stated preference techniques in the context of cost - benefit analysis. Especially for environmental goods or services that are complex or less familiar to participants and the community’s understanding with respect to non-market valuation is generally poor, DMV may be beneficial. This paper endeavours to contribute to the literature by exploring, for the first time, the role of information sharing, deliberation and storytelling on respondents’ values, beliefs and perceptions about groundwater resources. For this purpose, participants in a contingent valuation (CV) survey were invited to attend deliberative workshops, held after two months from the CV survey. The results indicate that the deliberation process has the ability to change participants’ perceptions by revealing values that were previously implicit, by helping them overcome cognitive barriers and by exposing them to a more diverse set of knowledge, arguments and opinions through group discussions. Overall, there is strong evidence that deliberation approaches could lead participants to better-informed choices, and consequently, to more sustainable, robust, and socially acceptable policy pathways for groundwater resources.