Abstract
We measure the value placed by the American public on ensuring the continued existence of the traditional Hopi culture and way of life at the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. The Hopi are the oldest living culture in the United States. The continued existence of the Reservation is threatened by depletion of the groundwater resource underlying the reservation. In the future, without a new source of water, the Hopi will run out of water to support the villages and continue their traditional Hopi agricultural practices. Many Hopi will have to move off the Reservation and give up their traditional culture and way of life. The Reservation will no longer serve as a permanent home for the Hopi Tribe. An expensive pipeline would be required to convey a new source of water to the Reservation, for which the Federal government might pay. The question is: would the expenditure by the federal government to convey water that would ensure the continued existence of the traditional Hopi culture at the Hopi Reservation be justified by the existence value of that culture to the American people? This paper describes the results of a study undertaken to measure that existence value. We show that a simple stated preference design, using only a single monetary amount, is sufficient to provide a bound.
Highlights
At least since the seminal paper by Krutilla (1967), the concept of existence value has been recognized in economics—the value that people place on some item to ensure its continued existence arising from motives unconnected with their own personal use or interaction with the item.1 Over the past fifty years, the concept of existence value has been applied to many different things, including inanimate objects and living things
The question arises: would a major investment by the federal government to provide conveyance for water that would ensure the continued existence of the traditional Hopi culture and way of life at the Hopi Reservation be justified by the existence value of that culture to non-Indian society in the United States? This paper describes the results of a study undertaken to measure that existence value
Environmental economists have not engaged in attaching monetary values to these losses
Summary
At least since the seminal paper by Krutilla (1967), the concept of existence value has been recognized in economics—the value that people place on some item to ensure its continued existence arising from motives unconnected with their own personal use or interaction with the item. Over the past fifty years, the concept of existence value has been applied to many different things, including inanimate objects (e.g., landscapes, cultural and historical monuments) and living things (birds, fish, animals, plants and insects). Some rituals may date back hundreds of years, and tribes should be granted water rights necessary to continue such practices into the future.” To an economist, this justification for Federal action to ensure an adequate water right for an Indian reservation involves the notion that there is an external social benefit when an Indian tribal culture is preserved and the reservation remains a “permanent home and abiding place.”. The question arises: would a major investment by the federal government to provide conveyance for water that would ensure the continued existence of the traditional Hopi culture and way of life at the Hopi Reservation be justified by the existence value of that culture to non-Indian society in the United States? The question arises: would a major investment by the federal government to provide conveyance for water that would ensure the continued existence of the traditional Hopi culture and way of life at the Hopi Reservation be justified by the existence value of that culture to non-Indian society in the United States? This paper describes the results of a study undertaken to measure that existence value
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