| Economic valuation of environmental amenities, public programs and damages caused by natural resource disasters is difficult precisely because there are no markets for these "commodities." The contingent valuation method (CVM) has been used in well over 2000 applications to measure the economic value of a specific, extensive change or proposal in a hypothetical market. Being a survey technique, the methodology has been both challenged and enriched by theory, methods, and findings from the discipline of psychology.; The growing use of psychological measures of attitudes to explain the preference statements made by respondents in a CV study is one example of this influence. However, a framework for employing these measures in an economic context has not yet been developed. This research aims to fill this void.; Two different contingent valuation studies were used to examine both the theoretical and the methodological compatibility of attitude measures with established economic practices. The first was an appraisal of a hypothetical air quality improvement plan for Sofia, Bulgaria. The second valued a possible management plan for Galveston Bay, Texas. In both of these studies, beliefs and feelings about numerous aspects of the plans were measured. The analyses for each study include a comparison of two different ways of aggregating attitudinal information.; Results of the analyses show that specific attitudes were highly significant for explaining respondents' preference statements, in addition to income constraints and the stated cost of the plan. Beliefs about the plans' outcomes and the fairness of the means of payment figured strongly in the significant attitudes of both surveys. Every model where the attitude measures were included had higher explanatory power than traditional econometric models. The magnitude of the attitudes effects were quite large and essentially stable under numerous model specifications.; While these results are encouraging there are drawbacks to the use of these measures. The most important are the reliability and interpretability of the measures themselves. These issues should be addressed in future research. |
