Constructing markets: environmental economics and the contingent valuation controversy

Banzhaf, H. Spencer (2016): Constructing markets: environmental economics and the contingent valuation controversy. Published in: History of Political Economy , Vol. 49, No. S (2017): pp. 213-239.

Abstract

As economists took up the task of measuring the "demand" for environmental services not traded in markets, some chose to substituted survey-based methods known as contingent valuation (CV). Doing so, they could not help but find themselves in the uncomfortable position of self-evidently constructing their observations rather than merely observing them. Apparent anomalies between the constructs and the predictions for economic man led to a fierce debate over the merits of contingent valuation--a debate that hinged on the question of whether economic theory was being "applied" or "tested."

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Contingent Valuation, Stated Preference, History, Environmental Economics
• Subjects: B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B2 - History of Economic Thought since 1925; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C9 - Design of Experiments; D - Microeconomics > D6 - Welfare Economics; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics

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