Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-l4dxg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-09T23:52:10.477Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ethical Preferences and the Assessment of Existence Values: Does the Neoclassical Model Fit?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2017

Steven F. Edwards
Steven F. Edwards*
Affiliation:
Marine Policy and Ocean Management Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Get access

Abstract

Some of the implications of ethical preferences for traditional welfare analyses of existence values are discussed in this paper and illustrated with a lexicographic model for preference structures. Although willingness-to-pay and willingness-to-sell are well-defined, their connection with Hicksian surpluses is lost when a person is motivated by an ethical commitment to others’ welfare. Researchers need to expand contingent valuation methods to collect information on underlying motives and types of preferences in order to identify respondents who fit the neoclassical model of egoistic man.

Type
Articles
Information
Northeastern Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , October 1986 , pp. 145 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © 1986 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

Research funding was provided by the J. N. Pew, Jr. Charitable Trust and the Marine Policy Center of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Contribution Number 6324). The helpful comments from James Broadus, John Gates, and two anonymous reviewers are acknowledged gratefully. Any opinions, errors, or omissions are the author's.

References

Bishop, R.C., Heberlein, T.A. and Kealy, M.J. “Contingent Valuation of Environmental Assets: Comparisons with a Simulated Market,” Natural Resources Journal 23 (1983):610–633.Google Scholar
Boyle, K.J. and Bishop, R.C. 1985. “The Total Value of Wildlife Resources: Conceptual and Empirical Issues,” Paper presented at the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists’ Workshop on Recreation Demand Modeling, Boulder, CO, May 17-18, 1985.Google Scholar
Brookshire, D.S., Eubanks, L.S. and Randall, A. “Estimating Option Prices and Existence Values for Wildlife Resources,” Land Economics 59 (1983):1–15.Google Scholar
Collard, D. “Edgeworth's Proposition on Altruism,” Economic Journal 85 (1975):355–360.Google Scholar
Feinberg, J. “The Rights of Animals and Future Generations,” In Philosophy and Environmental Crisis, ed. Blackstone, W.T., Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. 1974.Google Scholar
Ferejohn, J. and Page, T.R. “On the Foundations of Intertemporal Choice.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 60 (1978):269–275.Google Scholar
Fisher, A., and Raucher, R. “Intrinsic Benefits of Improved Water Quality: Conceptual and Empirical Perspectives,” In Applied Microeconomics, Vol. 3, eds. Smith, V. Kerry and Witte, Ann D., Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Godfrey-Smith, W. “The Value of Wilderness,” Environmental Ethics 1 (1979):309–319.Google Scholar
Hageman, R. R. “Economic Valuation of Wildlife: Does Existence Value Exist?” Paper presented at the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists’ Workshop on Marine Pollution and Environmental Damage Assessment, June 5-6, Narragansett, R.I., 1986.Google Scholar
Jeffrey, R.C. “Preferences Among Preferences,” Journal of Philosophy 71 (1974):377–391.Google Scholar
Kellert, S. R. “Perceptions of Animals in American Society,” Journal of the North American Wildlife Conference 41:533–546.Google Scholar
Kennett, D. A. “Altruism and Economic Behavior: I. Developments in the Theory of Public and Private Redistribution.” American Journal of Economics and Sociology 39 (1980):183–198.Google Scholar
Knetsch, J. L., and Sinden, J. A. “Willingness to Pay and Compensation Demanded: Experimental Evidence of an Unexpected Disparity in Measures of Values.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 99 (1984):507–522.Google Scholar
Madariaga, B. and McConnell, K. E. “Exploring Existence Value,” Paper presented at the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists’ Workshop on Recreation Demand Modeling, Boulder, CO, May 17-18, 1985.Google Scholar
Margolis, H. “A New Model of Rational Choice,” Ethics 91 (1981):265–279.Google Scholar
Manning, R. “Environmental Ethics and John Rawls's Theory of Justice,” Environmental Ethics 3 (1981):155–165.Google Scholar
Nagel, T. The Possibility of Altruism, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Opaluch, J. J. “Valuing Natural Resource and Environmental Amenities: Can Economic Valuation Techniques be Made Defensible: Discussion,” Northeastern Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 14 (1985):138–141.Google Scholar
Randall, A., and Stoll, J. R. “Existence Value in a Total Valuation Framework.” In Managing Air Quality and Scenic Resources at National Parks and Wilderness Areas, eds. Rowe, R. D. and Chestnut, L. G. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Schulze, W.D. and Kneese, A.V. Risk in Benefit-Cost Analysis,” Risk Analysis 1 (1981):81–88.Google Scholar
Schulze, W.D. and Kneese, A.V., Brookshire, D.S., and Sandler, T. “The Social Rate of Discount for Nuclear Wast Storage: Economics or Ethics.” Natural Resources Journal 21 (1981):811–832.Google Scholar
Sen, A. “Behavior and the Concept of Preference,” Economica 40 (1973):241–259.Google Scholar
Sen, A. “Rational Fools: A Critique of the Behavioral Foundations of Economic Theory,” Philosophy and Public Affairs 6 (1977):317–344.Google Scholar
Sen, A. “Personal Utilities and Public Judgements: Or What's Wrong with Welfare Economics?,” The Economic Journal 89 (1979):537–558.Google Scholar
Singer, P. Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals, New York: New York Review Book, 1975.Google Scholar
Taylor, P. W. “Are Humans Superior to Animals?” Environmental Ethics 6 (1984):149–160.Google Scholar
Tribe, L.H. “Ways Not to Think About Plastic Trees,” In When Values Conflict: Essays on Environmental Analysis, Discourse, and Decision, eds. Tribe, L.H., Schelling, C.S., and Voss, J., Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Publishing, 1976.Google Scholar
Walsh, R.G., Loomis, J.B. and Gillman, R. S. “Valuing Option, Existence, and Bequest Demands for Wilderness,” Land Economics 60 (1984):14–29.Google Scholar
Weiss, E.B. “The Planetary Trust: Conservation and Intergenerational Equity.” Ecology Law Quarterly 11 (1984):495–581.Google Scholar