Estimating value of statistical life (VSL) is an important input to many benefit-cost analysis (BCA) approaches, but for many low- and middle-income countries, there are limited or no data estimating VSL. Current guidance relies on extrapolation of results from high-income settings, which may be unreliable, leading to low confidence applying VSL. During 2019, we surveyed 1,820 low-income individuals (average consumption per capita USD329) across four diverse regions in Ghana and Kenya, to inform recommendations about effective spending in the development sector. We elicited VSL using a stated-preference approach, capturing the willingness-to-pay to reduce the risk of death for themselves and their children. Additionally, we conducted multiple “policy choice experiments” (PCEs) in which we asked respondents to choose, from the perspective of a decision-maker, between programs that save lives of different ages, and save lives and provide cash transfers. VSL estimates for this population fell in the range of USD66,795–USD90,453 (PPP-adjusted). We found similar results in the PCE but uncovered much stronger preferences for saving younger lives. Overall, our results suggest that VSL in low-income countries may be higher than estimates based on extrapolations from wealthy countries and that within these communities, policymakers should place more weight on saving the lives of young children. We also explore methodological learnings about how to apply and collect data for BCA in particularly low-income, low-education settings. We find that through careful training and gatekeeping, it is feasible to elicit complicated preferences in this population, and both approaches have their benefits and drawbacks.

Urban green spaces are primarily recognized for their ability to provide opportunities for recreational activities. However, these spaces also offer a broader range of ecosystem services and benefits, which are often overlooked by city inhabitants and the government. This paper utilizes choice experiments to estimate the benefits derived from ecosystem services provided by undeveloped natural areas and urban parks in San José, Costa Rica. We evaluate three ecosystem services provided by undeveloped natural areas, namely habitats for animals and plants, hydrological control, and recreation. Additionally, we estimate the benefits derived from the restoration and construction of three types of urban parks: neighborhood, metropolitan, and central district parks. The results demonstrate that individuals place significant value on the restoration of undeveloped natural areas and urban parks. The findings also indicate variations in the valuation of ecosystem services between undeveloped natural areas and different park types, as well as among households.

Understanding farmers’ preferences and willingness to pay for different traits is critical for demand-driven varietal development and designing targeted strategies that stimulate adoption of varieties by farmers. This study uses choice experiment data from a random sample of 1299 Tanzanian farmers to analyze their preferences for traits of groundnut varieties, investigate trade-offs involved in valuation of attributes, and explore heterogeneity in preferences. Results reveal that farmers have strong preferences for groundnut varieties that are high yielding, tolerant to environmental stresses, early-maturing, red-colored, and fetching high sale prices in grain markets. Farmers are willing to pay the highest premium for high-yielding attributes, closely followed by the tolerance trait. Further, a latent class analysis identifies four distinct classes of farmers, confirming considerable heterogeneity in farmers’ preferences for various groundnut traits. A specific distinction is notable between preferences of consumption-oriented and market-oriented farmer classes. Our results have important implications for demand-driven variety development and targeted dissemination of improved varieties.

The use of stated preference methods with monetary payments in developing countries can be problematic as barter and paying with labor are common in rural areas. In response, a growing number of stated preference studies explore using monetary and nonmonetary payment options. We contribute to this literature by exploring the impact of monetary vs. labor payment options on values elicited from choice experiment studies conducted in rural developing country settings. We also contribute to the literature by comparing data-gathering methods, specifically individual surveys vs. group information sessions. Our application is the restoration of an ancient irrigation system known as cascading tank systems in Sri Lanka. We conduct a choice experiment to understand the willingness to pay/willingness to contribute of rural households to restore these irrigation systems. We find that in the individual survey setting, there are no significant differences between monetary and labor payments. We also find that there is no difference between the group and individual survey settings for the monetary payment treatment. For the labor payment treatment, the group setting results in a positive payment coefficient for the labor payment attribute. This highlights that labor payments should be used cautiously in group evaluation settings.

Green rooftops, also known as vegetated roofs, will play a critical role in enhancing the resilience of urban areas in the face of climate change and other contemporary environmental and social challenges. To ensure the optimal design and implementation of these green technologies, it is vital to understand the public’s preferences, values, and attitudes toward the government support for green rooftops. This study employs contingent valuation methods, specifically utilizing a payment card and a choice experiment, to investigate these topics that have received inadequate exploration within the current body of literature. Our findings indicate that 45% of the public is aware of green rooftops, and the most desired features on an extensive green rooftop, ranked by importance, are: flowers, grass, trees, and walking paths. The majority (79%) of the public supports a federally proposed legislation currently under review (the Public School Green Rooftop Program) and has a mean willingness to pay of approximately $176 per household as a one-time payment. Additionally, the results show that individuals place a higher value on green rooftops that incorporate solar energy technology compared to those without. Furthermore, there is a perceived, loss of value when access to a green rooftop is limited, as opposed to having open access.

Fertility decline in human history is a complex enigma. Different triggers have been proposed, among others the increased demand for human capital resulting in parents making a quantity–quality (QQ) trade-off. This is the first study that examines the existence of a QQ trade-off and the possible gender bias by analyzing fertility intentions rather than fertility outcomes. We rely on the unified growth theory to understand the QQ trade-off conceptually and a discrete choice experiment conducted among 426 respondents in Ethiopia to analyze fertility intentions empirically. We confirm the existence of a QQ trade-off only when the number of children is less than six and find that intentions are gendered in two ways: (i) boys are preferred over girls, and (ii) men are willing to trade-off more education in return for more children. Results imply that a focus on both stimulating intentions for education, especially girls' education, and on family size intentions is important to accelerate the demographic transition.

Sorghum plays a crucial role in the rural economy and nutrition of rural households in Mali. Yet the productivity of this crop is constrained by limited adoption of agricultural intensification technologies, which could be partly because technology development does not properly consider farmers' preferences. This study with smallholder farmers in southern Mali aimed to assess farmers' preferences for different attributes of sorghum technologies through the lens of sustainable intensification. The study used a discrete choice experiment, a method which involves asking individuals to state their preference over hypothetical alternative scenarios, goods or services. We considered six attributes corresponding to different domains of sustainable intensification: grain yield, risk of yield loss, soil fertility, nutrition, labor requirement and fodder yield. We analyzed the data using the mixed logit model, while considering the multinomial logit model as a robustness check. The findings revealed that smallholder farmers are strongly interested in transitioning from their existing sorghum-based cropping systems to those that closely align with these domains of sustainable intensification. However, there were diverse preferences among all the smallholder farmers studied, and between distinct sub-groups of smallholder farmers characterized by their social networks and agroecological zones, which yield relevant policy implications. Overall, these results support the growing research and development prioritization and policy interests toward scaling sustainable intensification among farmers, with a particular focus on human nutrition.

This study aims to understand how Rwandan farmers value the improved characteristics of climate services introduced to them in a choice experiment setting. Data were collected from 1,525 household heads in November 2019. A random parameters logit model was used to analyze the data. Results suggest that Rwandan farmers value forecast accuracy, dissemination through a combination of extension agents and the Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture process, and bundling with market price information. This study suggests that to improve agricultural management planning and food security of farmers through the provision of climate services, these services need to be accurate, user-tailored, and accessible.

U.S. per capita seafood consumption is historically high due to population and income growth and consumer preference shifts toward healthy protein options. Despite this expansion, U.S. fisheries, especially those in the Great Lakes region, no longer fulfill domestic demand due to pressure on fish stocks and regulatory constraints. Instead, aquaculture and imports fill the gap. Rainbow trout, yellow perch, and walleye—three species historically produced in the North Central Region (NCR)—exemplify such trends. To expand marketing opportunities for NCR aquaculture producers, this study estimates willingness to pay (WTP) for these species and several search and credence fish attributes. We designed and distributed a survey instrument to collect hypothetical choice experiment responses from U.S. seafood consumers. Using a random utility framework, we estimate mean total WTP for trout, yellow perch, and walleye of $19.99/lb., $15.89/lb., and $17.37/lb., respectively. Further, we identify average price premia of $1.64/lb., $1.97/lb., and $0.84/lb. for NCR-sourced, wild-caught, and fresh fillet attributes. Our analysis also captures regional preferences. Mean WTP estimates for yellow perch and walleye, which are native to the Great Lakes, are significantly higher inside the NCR. Further, trout commands a higher premium outside the NCR than within, suggesting potential market segmentation for the analyzed species.

This study details the results of an experimental intervention designed to address the issue of price anchoring in the choice experiment framework. The intervention, which informs respondents of the tendency to anchor choices on potentially arbitrary pieces of information, is applied to a choice experiment used to examine consumers’ willingness to pay for local and/or organic tomatoes in Northern New England and develops three primary contributions. First, evidence from this study shows that anchoring effects are present. Second, providing information to consumers plays a mitigating role on these effects; price anchoring changes willing to pay estimates between 44% and 51% and exposure to anchoring-specific cheap talk is associated with a reduction in these anchoring effects between 60% and 80%. These results are explained through decreases in price sensitivity induced by increasing the mean price vector and subsequent increases in price sensitivity due to the information intervention. Finally, this study reveals that consumers are willing to pay a substantial price premium for locally grown tomatoes, from $0.96 to $1.12 per pound, offering some guidance for policy regarding growing practice and farm land use as regional coalitions support local agriculture expansion in the Northeast.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers a portfolio of flood risk mitigation options for high-risk homeowners, hoping to reduce flood damages. Buyout (home acquisition) and home retrofit (e.g., home elevation) are candidates available to homeowners. FEMA has recently amended and increased its buyout efforts. This study examines homeowners’ stated preference for buyout and home elevation contracts using survey data. Results indicate multiple factors influence the decision to participate in home acquisition and elevation programs. Importantly, we find that preferences vary with the timing (whether the contract is offered before or after a damage event) of the contract offered.

The valorization of plant genetic resources and their direct use in local markets can make a significant contribution to the preservation of agrobiodiversity, while also contributing to the sustainability of rural communities. Indeed, plant genetic resources are a precious source of genes, and they represent an important crop heritage for the quality and sensory characteristics that are required by both farmers and consumers. However, an efficient strategy of agrobiodiversity conservation is strictly connected to product marketability and to consumer preferences. In the present study, choice experiments that involved 920 consumers were carried out to determine their willingness to pay for ancient local tomato varieties (landraces) rather than commercial varieties based on their preferences, and to determine how much they valued these products. The results obtained indicate that consumers are willing to pay premium prices for ancient local tomato varieties (an additional €0.90 kg−1), thus demonstrating their increasing attention to sustainable food and the willingness to contribute to agrobiodiversity conservation and enhancement. These results provide the basis for planning strategies and programs to support the cultivation of these landraces and the development of regional and national markets to acknowledge their characteristics, which will considerably increase the effectiveness and efficiency of conservation strategies.

We used choice experiment data collected from 542 farmers in Nigeria to assess smallholders’ preferences for shifting to Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA). Results suggest that the higher the size of the incentive, the more the likelihood of farmers’ willingness to invest in CSA schemes. Similarly, the farmers were in favor of community development associations and non-governmental organizations-managed schemes over other project managements and also prefer government-based institutions as opposed to the private sector. Willingness to accept results suggest that an average farmer is willing to accept $540/ha/year and $386/ha/year to embrace good agricultural practices (GAPs) with and without manure application.

The conservation flagship approach is a valuable tool for raising funds and awareness, but species-based campaigns have been criticized for providing little benefit to wider biodiversity. One possible solution is to use conservation areas as flagships, but we lack data on the types of area that most appeal to potential donors. Here, we used an online choice experiment involving hypothetical overseas conservation areas to investigate how respondents value a series of conservation area attributes. We calculated the average willingness to pay for each attribute and assessed preference heterogeneity. Our results suggest that community ownership is valued the most, followed by the presence of threatened bird species, low current funding in the conservation area, the presence of charismatic mammals, and charity ownership. Respondents could be divided into three groups, based on their education, environmental organization membership and income. The group of respondents who were less wealthy and were members of environmental organizations were not willing to pay for this kind of conservation action, suggesting that flagship area campaigns targeted at them should encourage other types of involvement. The other two groups, which included respondents who were less engaged in conservation (neither group included environmental organization members, with one group less wealthy and less educated, and the other wealthier), found community ownership particularly appealing, suggesting that many potential donors may be driven by social concerns. This is a key finding and suggests flagship conservation areas could attract a new audience of donors, helping to support current global efforts to increase the management effectiveness, connectivity and extent of protected areas and land under other effective area-based conservation measures.

Previous studies indicate that “hesitation” and “skepticism” are important barriers to the development of renewable energy industries in the United States. We examine whether key pecuniary and nonpecuniary characteristics of bioenergy crops underlie the hesitation argument. Based on a stated choice experiment, we find that Midwestern producers appreciate certain crop attributes that are found in switchgrass, but not in conventional crops. We also find that producers would be willing to grow switchgrass-like crops for net margins between $222/acre/year and $247/acre/year in marginal counties. We argue that farmers’ hesitation and skepticism toward bioenergy crops can be overcome.

In 2008 European Commission launches the open access infrastructure for research in Europe project (OpenAIRE), supporting open access (OA) in scientific information and research output. In this paper, we assess the economic sustainability of the OpenAIRE project. The empirical strategy is developed through a Cost–Benefit Analysis framework to evaluate and compare the costs and benefits of OpenAIRE services to provide recommendations on the project’s economic efficiency and sustainability, a non-market valuation method based on the results of a “Choice Experiment” to calculate the Total Economic Value generated by OpenAIRE and a full preference ranking approach. Findings indicate that stakeholders prefer interoperability between research platforms and output, better access to scientific results and compliance to OA mandates. Furthermore, net social benefits for the basic services for 15 years are at least five times higher than costs’ present value while the potential R&D effect from research suggests even larger benefits in the long run. Subscriptions based on the estimated willingness to pay and cost, institutional subsidies and public awareness are the main recommendations for the sustainable operation of OpenAIRE. This study contributes to the literature on monetary valuation of the benefits and costs of OA to scientific knowledge.

Since 2017, the Japanese government has been phasing out the use of non-native bumblebees as greenhouse tomato pollinators due to their ecological risks. We used an online questionnaire to investigate whether pollination methods affect consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for tomatoes. We found that consumers valued the use of non-native bumblebees more than hormonal treatment and native more than non-native bees. Moreover, we found that informing consumers of the ecological risks increased WTP for native bumblebees and hormonal treatment. These results suggest that pollination method labeling may help protect ecosystems from the threat of non-native species.

This paper analyzes buying decisions when consumers consider the risk that a bottle of wine may be cork-tainted. Drawing on a sample of 804 subjects, we examine the role of gender, price level, and subjects’ country of origin and their personal cork-taint risk assessments. We find that women assess the cork-taint risk higher than men but are still more likely to buy bottles with cork closures. Young consumers from Asia are more risk-averse than people from Western countries. Gender and regional differences vanish for wines in higher price brackets. (JEL Classifications: C90, D12, L66)

This paper investigates cost-share program attributes that would affect producers' willingness to enroll in a cost-share program to fund the adoption of best management practices to improve water quality and decrease water use. Through a survey administered to Florida agricultural producers, we conducted choice experiments to assess farmers’ preferences for cost-share programs using five attributes: contracting agency, length of contract, annual verification process, costs included, and percent of costs covered. Results suggest that producers prefer cost-share programs with shorter contract lengths, self-monitoring, and administration by agricultural (as opposed to environmental) agencies. Our findings suggest the importance of an existing trust between the local communities and the contracting agencies for higher enrollment rates in cost –share programs. Our results can inform policymakers on ways to increase enrollment rates that move towards long-term environmental goals.

Livestock production provides a pathway for improving livelihoods and reducing poverty in semi-arid tropical regions. However, this contribution has been affected by low livestock productivity. Most livestock programmes have also failed due to, among other things, the inability to understand the dynamics in smallholder breeding preferences. Using data from the sub-humid region in Zimbabwe, this paper sought to provide evidence on smallholder cattle breeding preferences and the implication on livestock improvement programmes. It applies the choice experiment approach to model farmer preferences for selected cattle breeding attributes. The results show three attributes that significantly affect breeding preferences. The attributes ‘cow body condition score’ and the ‘useful life of a bull/semen’ have a positive influence while ‘artificial insemination/bull maintenance cost’ negatively affects farmer preferences. This means farmers prefer breeding strategies which improve the nutrition of their cows, have a longer lifespan for the bull/semen and whose cost of breeding services is low. However, access to education and income affected these preferences. Education made farmers to make informed choices while higher incomes increased the propensity of investing in livestock breeding technologies. The findings also show that existing institutional arrangements in animal management and community grazing do not promote investment in livestock improvement. Thus, more attention should be given to improving animal nutritional management which includes promoting sustainable grazing schemes. There is also a need to provide affordable livestock breeding services through recruiting and training more artificial insemination service providers. Strong and effective institutions that provide incentives for collective participation are integral to any community-based livestock breeding programme. There is also a need to promote access to information and enhance farmers’ knowledge and capacity in improved livestock management practices.