Investment projects are increasingly designed to provide multiple benefits. Some of these benefits are easily quantified through market-valuation methods while others are measured for their nonmarket values. The contingent valuation method (CVM) is one of the most widely used techniques to quantify and value benefits from nonmarket goods and services, such as improvement in air and water quality, and protection of ecosystems. This reference book provides a comprehensive guide to CVM. It aims to help improve future CVM studies and estimation of willingness to pay to inform economic analysis at the Asian Development Bank and beyond.

This guide explains how to measure people's willingness to pay for goods and services, such as improved air quality, that are not traded in a market. It aims to help improve the assessment of potential investment projects. Accounting for the value of nonmarket benefits and costs is an essential part of project economic analysis. The contingent valuation method (CVM) is a stated preference approach used in many areas of public policy, including water supply and sanitation, health, tourism, and cultural heritage. This book aims to support practitioners who are engaged to prepare and implement CVM studies as part of investment appraisal.

This is a practical book with clear descriptions of the most commonly used nonmarket methods. The first chapters of the book provide the context and theoretical foundation of nonmarket valuation along with a discussion of data collection procedures. The middle chapters describe the major stated- and revealed-preference valuation methods. For each method, the steps involved in implementation are laid out and carefully explained with supporting references from the published literature. The final chapters of the book examine the relevance of experimentation to economic valuation, the transfer of existing nonmarket values to new settings, and assessments of the reliability and validity of nonmarket values. The book is relevant to individuals in many professions at all career levels. Professionals in government agencies, attorneys involved with natural resource damage assessments, graduate students, and others will appreciate the thorough descriptions of how to design, implement, and analyze a nonmarket valuation study.

Nutrient recycling, habitat for plants and animals, flood control, and water supply are among the many beneficial services provided by aquatic ecosystems. In making decisions about human activities, such as draining a wetland for a housing development, it is essential to consider both the value of the development and the value of the ecosystem services that could be lost. Despite a growing recognition of the importance of ecosystem services, their value is often overlooked in environmental decision-making. This report identifies methods for assigning economic value to ecosystem servicesâ€"even intangible onesâ€"and calls for greater collaboration between ecologists and economists in such efforts.

Resource-management decisions, especially in the area of protecting and maintaining biodiversity, are usually incremental, limited in time by the ability to forecast conditions and human needs, and the result of tradeoffs between conservation and other management goals. The individual decisions may not have a major effect but can have a cumulative major effect. Perspectives on Biodiversity reviews current understanding of the value of biodiversity and the methods that are useful in assessing that value in particular circumstances. It recommends and details a list of components-including diversity of species, genetic variability within and among species, distribution of species across the ecosystem, the aesthetic satisfaction derived from diversity, and the duty to preserve and protect biodiversity. The book also recommends that more information about the role of biodiversity in sustaining natural resources be gathered and summarized in ways useful to managers. Acknowledging that decisions about biodiversity are necessarily qualitative and change over time because of the nonmarket nature of so many of the values, the committee recommends periodic reviews of management decisions.