Preferences for site and environmental functions when selecting forthcoming national parks

TY - JOUR

T1 - Preferences for site and environmental functions when selecting forthcoming national parks

AU - Jacobsen, Jette Bredahl

AU - Thorsen, Bo Jellesmark

N1 - Special Section: Ecosystem Services Valuation in China

PY - 2010/5/15

Y1 - 2010/5/15

N2 - A political decision to establish the first ever national parks in Denmark allowed us to examine if people hold preferences regarding which site to be designated as national park, separate from the preferences for its environmental functions. To this end, we designed a choice experiment representing the national park alternatives by the possible site and the possible improvements in environmental functions. Results revealed that respondents have strong preferences for the establishment of a national park per se. Furthermore, there are significant differences in taste parameters for the different sites, which cannot be explained by respondents' valuing the different functions differently across sites. Instead we explain the results with differences in regional and cultural preferences. We also performed a balanced split-sample test of anchoring effects and found clear evidence of this. We included a zero-bidder screening question prior to the choice set part of the survey instrument to improve WTP estimation.

AB - A political decision to establish the first ever national parks in Denmark allowed us to examine if people hold preferences regarding which site to be designated as national park, separate from the preferences for its environmental functions. To this end, we designed a choice experiment representing the national park alternatives by the possible site and the possible improvements in environmental functions. Results revealed that respondents have strong preferences for the establishment of a national park per se. Furthermore, there are significant differences in taste parameters for the different sites, which cannot be explained by respondents' valuing the different functions differently across sites. Instead we explain the results with differences in regional and cultural preferences. We also performed a balanced split-sample test of anchoring effects and found clear evidence of this. We included a zero-bidder screening question prior to the choice set part of the survey instrument to improve WTP estimation.

U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.02.013

DO - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.02.013

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0921-8009

VL - 69

SP - 1532

EP - 1544

JO - Ecological Economics

JF - Ecological Economics

IS - 7

ER -