Dj. Krieger et Jp. Hoehn, The economic value of reducing environmental health risks: Contingent valuation estimates of the value of information, J ENVIR MGM, 56(1), 1999, pp. 25-34
Obtaining economically consistent values for changes in low probability hea
lth risks continues to be a challenge for contingent valuation (CV) as well
as for other valuation methods. One often cited condition for economic con
sistency is that estimated values be sensitive to the scope (differences in
quantity or quality) of a good described in a CV application. The alleged
limitations of CV pose a particular problem for environmental managers who
must often make decisions that affect human health risks. This paper demons
trates that a well-designed CV application can elicit scope sensitive value
s even for programs that provide conceptually complex goods such as risk re
duction. Specifically, it finds that the amount sport anglers are willing t
o pay for information about chemical residues in fish varies systematically
with informativeness-a relationship suggested by the theory of information
value. (C) 1999 Academic Press.