Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T04:40:10.075Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Broadening the Concept and Measurement of Existence Value

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2017

John Loomis
John Loomis*
Affiliation:
Division of Environmental Studies, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of California, Davis
Get access

Abstract

Recent efforts to refine the concept of existence value and to empirically measure it has led to an unnecessary narrowing of the concept of existence value. This paper uses the literature on public goods to argue that existence value is a much broader concept than proposed by several authors. Two commonly used but different empirical approaches to measuring existence values are compared and shown to lead to statistically different decompositions of total value between use and existence categories.

Type
Articles
Information
Northeastern Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , April 1988 , pp. 23 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © 1988 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I would like to thank Michael Welsh in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Oklahoma State University for sharing his work on this subject with me and for his comments on an earlier version of this paper. However, sole responsibility for what follows rests with the author and the author alone. This research was supported by funds from the Agricultural Experiment Station, Regional Project W-133.

References

Bishop, Richard. “Option Value: An Exposition and Extension.” Land Economics 58 (1982):1–15.Google Scholar
Boyle, Kevin and Bishop, Richard. “The Total Value of Wildlife Resources: Conceptual and Empirical Issues”. Paper presented at the AERE workshop on Recreational Demand Modelling, Boulder, CO. 1985.Google Scholar
Brookshire, David, Eubanks, Larry and Randall, Alan. “Estimating Option Prices and Existence Values for Wildlife Resources.” Land Economics 59 (1983):1–15.Google Scholar
Brookshire, David, Eubanks, Larry and Sorg, Cindy. “Existence Value and Normative Economics: Implications for Valuing Water Resources.” Water Resources Research 22 (1986):1509–1518.Google Scholar
Clawson, Marion. “Methods of Measuring the Demand for and Value of Outdoor Recreation”. Reprint #10, Resources for the Future, Washington DC. 1959.Google Scholar
Dillman, Don. Mail and Telephone Surveys. John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY. 1978.Google Scholar
Freeman, Myrick. “Supply Uncertainty, Option Price and Option Value.” Land Economics 61 (1985):176–181.Google Scholar
Glass, Gene and Stanley, Julian. Statistical Methods in Education and Psychology. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. 1970.Google Scholar
Hageman, Rhonda. Marine, Valuing Mammal Populations: Benefit Valuation Experiments in a Multi-Species Ecosystem. Administrative Report LJ-85-22. Southwest Fisheries Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, La Jolla, CA. 1985.Google Scholar
Hochman, Harold and Rodgers, James. “Pareto Optimal Redistributions”, American Economic Review 59 (1969):542–557.Google Scholar
Krutilla, John. “Conservation Reconsidered.” American Economic Review 57 (1967):777–786.Google Scholar
Loomis, John. “An Economic Evaluation of Public Trust Resources of Mono Lake.” Institute of Ecology Report #30. University of California-Davis. 1987a.Google Scholar
Loomis, John. “Expanding Contingent Valuation Sample Estimates to Population Values”. Land Economics 63 (1987b):396–402.Google Scholar
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. “Los Angeles’ Mono Basin Water Supply.” Briefing Document. 1985.Google Scholar
McConnell, Kenneth. “Existence and Bequest Value”. In Managing Air Quality and Scenic Resources at National Parks and Wilderness Areas. Edited by Rowe, R. and Chestnut, L. Westview Press, Boulder, CO. 1983.Google Scholar
Randall, Alan and Stoll, John. “Existence Value in a Total Valuation Framework.” In Managing Air Quality and Scenic Resources at National Parks and Wilderness Areas. Edited by Rowe, R. and Chestnut, L. Westview Press, Boulder, CO. 1983.Google Scholar
Randall, Alan. “Total Economic Value as a Basis for Policy.” Paper presented at W-133 State Agricultural Experiment Station meeting, San Diego, CA. 1986.Google Scholar
Stoll, John and Johnson, Lee Ann. “Concepts of Value, Nonmarket Valuation and the Case of the Whooping Crane.” Transactions of the Forty-ninth North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference, Wildlife Management Institute, Washington DC. 1984.Google Scholar
Thurow, Lester. “The Income Distribution as a Pure Public Good.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 85 (1971):327–336.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Interior. Natural Resource Damage Assessments; Final Rule. Federal Register, Vol 51 (1986). Washington DC.Google Scholar
Walsh, Richard, Loomis, John and Gillman, Richard. “Valuing Option, Existence and Bequest Demands for Wilderness.” Land Economics 60 (1984):14–29.Google Scholar
Weisbrod, Burton. “Collective-consumption Services of Individual-consumption Goods.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 78 (1964):471–477.Google Scholar