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Contingent valuation of a Taiwanese wetland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2001

James K. Hammitt ,
Jin-Tan Liu  and
Jin-Long Liu
James K. Hammitt
Affiliation:
Harvard School of Public Health, 718 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115 USA. Tel: 617 432 4030. Fax: 617 432 0190. E-mail: James_Hammitt@Harvard.edu
Jin-Tan Liu
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, National Taiwan University and Research Fellow, Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.
Jin-Long Liu
Affiliation:
Institute of Industrial Economics, National Central University, Taiwan
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Abstract

Wetlands provide a variety of important environmental services including flood control, wildlife habitat, waste treatment, and recreational opportunities. Because most of these services are public goods, the value of wetland preservation cannot be directly obtained from market prices but may be estimated using revealed-preference or stated-preference methods. We estimate the value to local residents of protecting the Kuantu wetland in Taiwan using contingent valuation. Estimates are sensitive to question format, with estimates using a double-bounded dichotomous-choice format about three times larger than estimates using a single open-ended question. Using the open-ended format, the estimated annual mean household willingness to pay to preserve the Kuantu wetland is about US$21. Using the dichotomous-choice questions, the value is about US$65. These estimates suggest the total present-value willingness to pay to preserve Kuantu wetland is about US$200 million to US$1.2 billion (discounted at 5–10%).

Keywords

contingent valuationwillingness to paywetlands
Type
Policy Options
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , May 2001 , pp. 259 - 268
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This research was supported by a grant from the National Science Council, Taiwan. Special thanks go to the staff of the Survey Research Office, Academia Sinica for assisting with survey administration. We also thank Maureen Cropper, Pei-Ing Wu, the editor and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.