Understanding individuals’ preferences and behaviours
Stated preference // Revealed preference // Market prices // Valuation experiments // Subjective well-being
Through this service, we can help our clients answer questions like the following:
- What are individuals’ willingness to pay or willingness to accept compensation for environmental change?
- What are the reasons for individuals having preferences for the environment?
- Which factors affect individuals’ behaviours, willingness to pay or willingness to accept?
We collect, analyse and interpret qualitative, quantitative and monetary evidence to assess both financial and social implications of our clients’ action or inaction. Such evidence is used in:
- Choosing amongst competing investments with different environmental impacts
- Prioritising amongst different environmental resources or challenges for environmental policy
- Designing policy instruments such as habitat banking, biodiversity offsets, tradeable permits, green taxes and voluntary agreements
We conduct primary research using all economic valuation methods (market prices, avertive behaviour, travel cost, hedonic pricing, contingent valuation and choice modeling), and apply economic valuation evidence using value transfer. Recently, we have become involved in economic valuation workshops / experiments and subjective wellbeing analysis.
We have conducted valuation studies for public and private sector clients in a wide variety of sectors and environmental media:
- Water resources and wastewater management
- Recreation and tourism
- Energy generation and air quality
- Air pollution and human health
- Transport and landscape
- Road and rail noise and vibration
- Urban regeneration
- New housing and urban fringe development
- Economic value of cultural and historic heritage sites
- Environmental and health impacts of pesticide use
Some of our clients for this service include:
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), Environment Agency, Scottish Government, English Heritage, Department of Transport, Thames Water, Anglian Water and United Utilities
Contact Person: Allan Provins
