Environmental Goods: Determination of Preferences and Trade-off Values

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn the last decade environmental goods such as scenic beauty, sites of cultural and aesthetic significance, human safety and health, tranquility, environmental quality, and other related attributes of the environment have caught the attention of the public. Natural resource development projects emphasizing primarily economic benefits are no longer acceptable to the public. The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 clearly requires that “…Federal decision making incorporate environmental values along with technical and economic values; that both short-and long-term effects be given careful consideration “ (Council on Environmental Quality, 1971: 240).The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to assess the current status of considering environmental goods in public investment decisions; second, to consider the Priority Evaluator technique developed by Social and Community Planning Research, London, as a viable technique for valuation of environmental goods; and third, to present and discuss...