Keywords
Ecosystem services
Non-market goods
Willingness to pay
Contingent valuation
Forests
Environmental policy
How to Cite
Abstract
Written by an economist with a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, this article presents the conceptual and methodological foundations of the economic valuation of environmental services, based on a lecture given at the 2011 International Forest Congress in Medellín. The author explains that this exercise seeks to estimate the monetary value of non-market goods, distinguishing between price and economic value, and presents the questionable ethical foundations of the economic concept of value. The text develops the concepts of Willingness to Pay and Willingness to Accept, and describes revealed- and stated-preference methods, illustrating them with the case of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
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Copyright (c) 2011 Felipe Vásquez Lavín