Nonuse Value: Reflections on the Definition and Measurement

Abstract

One of the central themes in the field of environmental economics has been the valuation of environmental amenities, usually within the framework of benefit cost analysis (BCA) or natural resource damage assessment. Much of the research associated with BCA has sought to expand the types of benefits that can be quantified and measured in money terms. The result has been a broadened interpretation of the norms of conventional BCA (i.e. the dual assumptions of individual utility maximization from consumption and the expression of value through market transactions). With these advances, there has been a progressive movement of commodities from the set without measures (usually designated as intangibles) to the set with measures. For example, recreational services associated with water resource projects, were regarded as intangible until the development of the travel cost method (TCM) for estimating the demand for outdoor recreation sites (Clawson and Knetsch, 1966; Desvouges et al., 1983; McConnell, 1985). Currently, attention has been focused on one major category of intangibles in BCA: nonuse values (NUV) associated with natural environmental resources.