Environmental valuation and its economic critics

In the last few decades economists have devoted significant professional at tention to developing and applying methods to place monetary values on envi ronmental services. This paper summarizes the criticisms from within the ec onomics profession of the environmental valuation research program. General ly, the critics question whether meaningful benefit estimates can be made f or environmental services and, if made, whether the estimates are acceptabl e guides to making environmental policy. We conclude by noting that the deb ate over the "value of valuation" in water resources will not subside, beca use this debate is part of a wider intellectual dialogue regarding the role of analysts and quantification in the making of public policy.