CONSISTENCY BETWEEN CONTINGENT VALUATION ESTIMATES - A COMPARISON OF 2 STUDIES OF UK NATIONAL-PARKS

Recent years have seen a significant increase in the application of th e contingent valuation method to the evaluation of environmental prefe rences in the UK. Recent theoretical and methodological developments s uggest that this increase is likely to be sustained for the foreseeabl e future. This paper examines the issue of consistency across studies carried out to date in the UK. Attention is initially focused upon two major studies which allow the comparison of a number of findings. Ana lysis is then extended to a large number of smaller studies. These com parisons suggest that the results obtained to date are both consistent and logically ordered (with reference to the environmental good and t he change in provision under consideration) across studies.