Willingness to pay for unfamiliar public goods: Preserving cold-water coral in Norway

Margrethe Aanesen; Claire Armstrong; Mikołaj Czajkowski; Jannike Falk-Petersen; Nicholas David Hanley; Ståle Navrud

doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.02.007

Willingness to pay for unfamiliar public goods: Preserving cold-water coral in Norway

Margrethe Aanesen, Claire Armstrong, Mikołaj Czajkowski, Jannike Falk-Petersen, Nicholas David Hanley, Ståle Navrud

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The world's largest concentration of cold-water coral (CWC) is found off the Norwegian coast. Most CWC discoveries are recent, posing new challenges for Norwegian coastal and fishery authorities regarding the management of deep-sea resources. Scientific knowledge of CWC is limited, and many citizens have not even heard about them. This creates problems for the application of the stated preference methods to capture their economic value, and very few such studies have been conducted. To fill this gap, we designed a discrete choice experiment, which was implemented in a valuation workshop setting in order to derive estimates of participants' willingness to pay (WTP) for increasing the protection of CWC. Despite the fact that marine industries such as oil/gas and fisheries could be adversely affected by CWC protection, this did not reduce the respondents' willingness to pay for further protection. The possibility that CWCs play an important role as habitat for fish was the single most important variable to explain respondents' WTP for CWC protection. The survey revealed a high degree of preference heterogeneity, while we found an average WTP for CWC protection in the range of EUR 274–287.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	53-67
Number of pages	15
Journal	Ecological Economics
Volume	112
Issue number	0
Early online date	17 Feb 2015
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.02.007
Publication status	Published - Apr 2015

Keywords

Cold-water coral
Willingness to pay
Unfamiliar public good
Discrete choice experiment
Natural resource management

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Z:\Documents\research\norway cwc\manuscript CWC valuation 2nd revision
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title = "Willingness to pay for unfamiliar public goods: Preserving cold-water coral in Norway",

abstract = "The world's largest concentration of cold-water coral (CWC) is found off the Norwegian coast. Most CWC discoveries are recent, posing new challenges for Norwegian coastal and fishery authorities regarding the management of deep-sea resources. Scientific knowledge of CWC is limited, and many citizens have not even heard about them. This creates problems for the application of the stated preference methods to capture their economic value, and very few such studies have been conducted. To fill this gap, we designed a discrete choice experiment, which was implemented in a valuation workshop setting in order to derive estimates of participants' willingness to pay (WTP) for increasing the protection of CWC. Despite the fact that marine industries such as oil/gas and fisheries could be adversely affected by CWC protection, this did not reduce the respondents' willingness to pay for further protection. The possibility that CWCs play an important role as habitat for fish was the single most important variable to explain respondents' WTP for CWC protection. The survey revealed a high degree of preference heterogeneity, while we found an average WTP for CWC protection in the range of EUR 274–287.",

keywords = "Cold-water coral, Willingness to pay, Unfamiliar public good, Discrete choice experiment, Natural resource management",

author = "Margrethe Aanesen and Claire Armstrong and Miko{\l}aj Czajkowski and Jannike Falk-Petersen and Hanley, {Nicholas David} and St{\aa}le Navrud",

note = "The work on this paper is carried out in the project “Habitat-Fisheries interactions: Valuation and bio-economic modeling of cold water corals” financed by the Norwegian Research Council, grant # 216485. ",

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AU - Aanesen, Margrethe

AU - Armstrong, Claire

AU - Czajkowski, Mikołaj

AU - Falk-Petersen, Jannike

AU - Hanley, Nicholas David

AU - Navrud, Ståle

N1 - The work on this paper is carried out in the project “Habitat-Fisheries interactions: Valuation and bio-economic modeling of cold water corals” financed by the Norwegian Research Council, grant # 216485.

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N2 - The world's largest concentration of cold-water coral (CWC) is found off the Norwegian coast. Most CWC discoveries are recent, posing new challenges for Norwegian coastal and fishery authorities regarding the management of deep-sea resources. Scientific knowledge of CWC is limited, and many citizens have not even heard about them. This creates problems for the application of the stated preference methods to capture their economic value, and very few such studies have been conducted. To fill this gap, we designed a discrete choice experiment, which was implemented in a valuation workshop setting in order to derive estimates of participants' willingness to pay (WTP) for increasing the protection of CWC. Despite the fact that marine industries such as oil/gas and fisheries could be adversely affected by CWC protection, this did not reduce the respondents' willingness to pay for further protection. The possibility that CWCs play an important role as habitat for fish was the single most important variable to explain respondents' WTP for CWC protection. The survey revealed a high degree of preference heterogeneity, while we found an average WTP for CWC protection in the range of EUR 274–287.

AB - The world's largest concentration of cold-water coral (CWC) is found off the Norwegian coast. Most CWC discoveries are recent, posing new challenges for Norwegian coastal and fishery authorities regarding the management of deep-sea resources. Scientific knowledge of CWC is limited, and many citizens have not even heard about them. This creates problems for the application of the stated preference methods to capture their economic value, and very few such studies have been conducted. To fill this gap, we designed a discrete choice experiment, which was implemented in a valuation workshop setting in order to derive estimates of participants' willingness to pay (WTP) for increasing the protection of CWC. Despite the fact that marine industries such as oil/gas and fisheries could be adversely affected by CWC protection, this did not reduce the respondents' willingness to pay for further protection. The possibility that CWCs play an important role as habitat for fish was the single most important variable to explain respondents' WTP for CWC protection. The survey revealed a high degree of preference heterogeneity, while we found an average WTP for CWC protection in the range of EUR 274–287.

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KW - Willingness to pay

KW - Unfamiliar public good

KW - Discrete choice experiment

KW - Natural resource management

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JF - Ecological Economics

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Willingness to pay for unfamiliar public goods: Preserving cold-water coral in Norway

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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