The Use of Survey Instruments to Value Non-market Goods

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This paper is a taxonomic discussion of the some reasons why survey instruments may often be a superior means of generating data with which to value environmental and aesthetic goods. The authors argue that economists have erred in viewing the situations these instruments posit as necessarily fictional; that the data generated by survey instruments may, for non-marketed goods and the activities with which they are associated, accord more closely with the conditions of received economic theory; that survey instruments can make it easier to remove the difficulties of estimation and interpretation introduced by confounding variables; and that survey instruments often permit historical experience. These are indeed substantial advantages, the authors argue, that economists have not adequately recognized or appreciated. Nevertheless, a major disadvantage remains: Until detailed analytical knowledge is acquired of the manner in which expectations are formed, there exists no way to refute empirical propositions established from survey instruments or any other data collection device that inquires into expected behavior.

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