Abstract
Understanding how the value of environmental goods and services is influenced by their location relative to where people live can help identify the economically optimal spatial distribution of conservation interventions across landscapes. However, capturing these spatial relationships within the confines of a stated preference study has proved challenging. We propose and implement a novel approach to incorporating space within the design and presentation of stated preference choice experiments (CE). Using an investigation of preferences concerning land use change in Great Britain, CE scenarios are presented through individually generated maps, tailored to each respondent’s home location. Each choice situation is generated in real time and is underpinned by spatially tailored experimental designs that reflect current British land uses and incorporate locational attributes relating to physical and administrative dimensions of space. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first CE study to integrate space into both the survey design and presentation of choice tasks in this way. Presented methodology provides means for testing how presentation of spatial information influence stated preferences. We contrast our spatially explicit (mapped) approach with a commonly applied tabular CE approach finding that the former exhibits a number of desirable characteristics relative to the latter.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 297-322 |
| Number of pages | 26 |
| Journal | Environmental and Resource Economics |
| Volume | 75 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Feb 2020 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We are grateful to three anonymous referees and the editors for excellent insights and comments that greatly helped to improve the manuscript. We would like to also express gratitude for the multiple comments provided on previous drafts of the paper presented at EAERE, ICMC, envecon and bioecon conferences as well as at the PhD colloquium organised by Prof. David Maddison from University of Birmingham. Tomas Badura would like thank his supervisors for guidance and support and to acknowledge Zuckerman studentship funding from School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia which supported his PhD research. Ian J. Bateman and Amy Binner would like to acknowledge funding from South West Partnership for Environment and Economic Prosperity (SWEEP) (Ref. NE/P004970/1; NERC Project code: NE/P011217/1).
Funding Information:
We are grateful to three anonymous referees and the editors for excellent insights and comments that greatly helped to improve the manuscript. We would like to also express gratitude for the multiple comments provided on previous drafts of the paper presented at EAERE, ICMC, envecon and bioecon conferences as well as at the PhD colloquium organised by Prof. David Maddison from University of Birmingham. Tomas Badura would like thank his supervisors for guidance and support and to acknowledge Zuckerman studentship funding from School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia which supported his PhD research. Ian J. Bateman and Amy Binner would like to acknowledge funding from South West Partnership for Environment and Economic Prosperity (SWEEP) (Ref. NE/P004970/1; NERC Project code: NE/P011217/1).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s).
Keywords
- Choice experiment
- Distance decay
- Economic valuation
- Maps
- Spatial and temporal issues
- Spatial heterogeneity
- Stated preferences
- Survey design