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Willingness to Pay for Water Quality Improvements in the United States and Canada: Considering Possibilities for International Meta-Analysis and Benefit Transfer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

Robert J. Johnston  and
Paul J. Thomassin
Robert J. Johnston
Affiliation:
Director of the George Perkins Marsh Institute and Professor in the Department of Economics at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts
Paul J. Thomassin
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Economics at McGill University, Macdonald Campus, in Ste. Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, Canada
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Abstract

This paper presents a multinational meta-analysis estimated to identify systematic components of willingness to pay for surface water quality improvements, developed to support benefit transfer for Canadian policy development. Metadata are drawn from stated preference studies that estimate WTP for water quality changes affecting aquatic life habitats—a type of study with few Canadian examples. The goals of this paper are to assess the properties of a multinational (United States/Canada) meta-analysis compared to a single-country (U.S.) analog; illustrate the potential information that may be derived as well as the analytical challenges; and assess the performance of resulting meta-functions for benefit transfer.

Keywords

meta-regression analysisstated preferencewater qualitywillingness to paybenefit cost analysis
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Agricultural and Resource Economics Review , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , February 2010 , pp. 114 - 131
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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