Are outcome attributes non-market?


The next question to consider, for both public and private actors, is whether valuation should be applied to outcomes that are not traded in markets. These include high environmental quality, moral contentment, and good health. To establish appropriate values - the relative value of these goods to those goods that are traded on markets - there are a number of methods to estimate value. These include hedonic pricing, contingent valuation, and the travel cost method.



AP interactive decision tree - click any node to select it

The next decision node to consider, for both public and private actors, is whether valuation should be applied to outcomes that are not traded in markets. These include high environmental quality, moral contentment, and good health. To establish appropriate values - the relative value of these goods to those goods that are traded on markets - there are a number of methods to estimate value. These include hedonic pricing, contingent valuation, and the travel cost method (see Patt 2010). An example of the hedonic pricing method would be examine the extent to which prices of housing with a good view of a natural landscape differ from similar located houses without the view; from this is, it is possible to impute a value for the landscape quality. An example of contingent valuation would be to ask people how much they would be willing to pay to preserve a wetland; from this it is possible to impute a value to the wetlands' existence. An example of the travel cost method would be to survey visitors to a national park about where they came from and how much they are willing to pay for visiting the park and the calculating the value of the park as the consumer surplus (Patt 2010).

If non-market outcomes are of interest, public actors may apply any of these methods (see the Toolbox section on Valuation). For private actors, non-market outcomes can be ranked according to their own preferences; no elicitation of preferences is necessary.



This section is based on the UNEP PROVIA guidance document


Criteria checklist

1. You want to appraise adaptation options.
2. The focus is either on collective actions and there are no conflicting interests of private actors, or the focus is on individual collective actions.
3. Decisions can be formalised.
4. Either the set of options includes only short term ones or residual impacts can not be projected.
5. There are risks are due to current climate variability and the relative costs of outcomes are high.
6. Public decision.
7. As a next step you are faced with the question whether outcome attributes do have prices.