Publicly Vested Values for Fish and Wildlife: Comment

Abstract

Meyer's conclusion from these four observations is that natural resource asset services must loom large in individual utility functions. Indeed, he implicitly ranks the loss of public recreational opportunity on a qualitative par with loss of home, family. or other important components of living quality (p. 228). Other scholars, for example, Dwyer and Bowes (1978) have reacted differently to these same observations. They conclude that weakness in the survey instruments (eliciting WTS responses) seems likely (p. 1009). Meyer himself touches on this area, which I would characterize as that of strategic behavior. He says (quoting from another of his papers), . while it has long been recognized by theorists that the reality of an actual payment may tend to shift requests for compensation downward from initial hypothetical levels, evidence from the present study raises the clear possibility that an increased reality of an actual specified injurious impact may tend to shift requests for compensation upward (Meyer 1978, p. 20). An alternative explanation, then, for the four observations above is that the apparent conflict arises from strategic responses to survey questions asking about WTP and WTS. The strategic considerations involved may be characterized as follows: