Valuing surface water quality improvements: quality measurement, spatial variability, extent of the market, and incentive compatibility | Christian Vossler

Dr. Christian Vossler is the J. Fred Holly Chair of Excellence in the Department of Economics, Haslam College of Business, at the University of Tennessee and the director of the UT Experimental Economics Laboratory.

He will be presenting his paper ‘Valuing surface water quality improvements: quality measurement, spatial variability, extent of the market, and incentive compatibility’

Abstract

The base of scientific knowledge is currently insufficient for undertaking desired regulatory and benefit-cost analyses related to water quality in the U.S. and many other countries. This research seeks to help fill methodological gaps in the non-market valuation of surface water quality, and uses a state-of-the-art stated preference survey to estimate the benefits of nutrient-sensitive aquatic ecosystem services across the Upper Mississippi and Ohio-Tennessee river basins. We develop new metrics of water quality improvements to incorporate ecological health, which we combine with the traditional water quality ladder to define water quality scenarios that can be readily understood by the public. We explore the sensitivity of elicited benefit estimates to scale of change (the geographic size in which the improvement occurs) and the extent of the market (how far the respondent lives from the improvements). Of broad relevance for repeated discrete choice stated preference surveys, we study the effects of information scripts (related to payment vehicles and the independence of choice sets) hypothesized to influence incentives for truthful preference revelation.

Please email gri.events@lse.ac.uk with the name of the presenter in order to request the Zoom joining details for this workshop by by 5pm on Tuesday 15th June 2021.