Many South African estuaries are currently believed to be generating lower levels of services than they used to in the past due to substantially reduced inflow of river water, among other reasons. The basis by which river water is allocated in South Africa has had to be re-examined. Local authorities are now required to integrate into their development planning sensitivity to the ways estuaries work; the relevant legislation being the Municipal Systems Act No. 32 of 2000. Sound water resource management requires that the benefits and costs of different water allocations be compared and an optimum determined. The Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) is used in this study to estimate the benefits of changing allocations of river water into estuaries. This study builds on a CVM pilot project done at the Keurbooms Estuary in the Southern Cape in year 2000 (Du Preez, 2002). Further CVM studies were conducted at the Knysna, Groot Brak and Klein Brak estuaries (Dimopolous, 2004). The CVM is a valuation technique based on answers given to carefully formulated questions on what people are willing to pay for specified changes of freshwater inflows into estuaries. The CVM depends on there being a close correspondence between expressed answers given to hypothetical questions and voluntary exchanges in competitive markets that would be entered into if money did actually change hands. The fact that it has proved very difficult to establish this correspondence has led to CVM being subject to criticism. However, many aspects of this criticism have been addressed in the form of methods to reduce biases, and the application of the technique has grown steadily in popularity during the past 25 years. Four estuaries, the Swartkops, Kariega, Mngazi and Mngazana, were surveyed as part of this study in order to determine users’ willingness to pay (WTP) for changes in freshwater inflows. Considerable research time was devoted at the estuaries getting to know how things worked around and in the estuaries. The Swartkops estuary is a permanently open system within the Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan area. The estuary has the third largest salt marsh in South Africa. Its banks are highly developed with residential and industrial property and it is heavily used for both recreation and subsistence fishing by locals. The Kariega estuary is located near the semi-rural town of Kenton-on-sea, between Port Elizabeth and East London. Although it is permanently open, the Kariega estuary has very low inflows of river water. It is mainly used by retired pensioners living in holiday houses at Kenton-on-sea. The Kariega is not heavily used for recreation and subsistence fishing, except during holidays and the festive season because of its proximity to other estuaries such as the Bushmans and the Kleinemond. The Mngazi and the Mngazana estuaries are located in the Wild Coast area of the Eastern Cape, in the Port St Johns Municipal district. The Mngazi is a temporarily open/closed system which does not have high botanical ratings, although it is heavily used by visitors to the well known Mngazi River Bungalows, a highly rated hotel near the mouth of the Mngazi River. The Mngazana estuary is a permanently open system renowned for its Mangrove forests and excellent fishing spots. Both the Mngazi and Mngazana estuaries are located in rural areas and are heavily used by local village residents for subsistence purposes.

This master's thesis focuses on the valuation of the Municipal Library in Prague, the cultural institution allowances organization. Its aim is to estimate the value up for the date of 31th October 2013 for the purpose of its founder, Prague - the capital city, and to compare the measured value with the level of annual non-capital contribution for the Municipal Library from its founder. The valuation was performed by using the contingent valuation method, which is based on random sample of the questionnaire survey respondents who express their preferences. They are gradually guided to be able to provide the maximum price that they would be willing to pay for use of services and to be able to work out what financial compensation they would be willing to accept for the decrease in their quality life. The starting point of this thesis is to determine the prognosis of the number of registered readers, borrowings, economy of the Municipal Library, its market position and other requisites. This thesis is one of the few which contains valuation in the cultural sector in the Czech Republic.

The diploma thesis deals with validity of direct measurement of stated willingness to pay (WTP) in the fair trade context based on two-phase measurement applied in the INESAN survey. Attention is also paid to the unit of answer to an open-ended question and to the functionality of WTP as an indicator of purchase intent. First, fair trade, the concept of WTP with focus on areas of its application, ways of measurement, critics and problems of its use are introduced from the theoretical perspective. Further, cognitive aspects of the process of answering survey questions as a way of testing the functionality of a measurement tool are analyzed. The thesis is built on a combination of two survey methods, cognitive interviews and secondary analysis of quantitative data. It concludes that measuring WTP for the purpose of capturing the value of fair trade using direct stated method of measurement is problematic as numerous risks with impact on validity of acquired data appear. Those risks concern both the particular way of measurement and the direct stated WTP measurement in general, starting with ambiguous interpretation of WTP questions for a fair trade product among respondents. The thesis also shows that answering open-ended question in the form of percentage is cognitively more demanding than in the...

This dissertation focuses on the non-market valuation of health-risks of malaria, an infectious disease that imposes a substantive public health burden across the globe, hitting particularly hard the tropical developing nations of Africa and Asia. The United Nations Millennium Development Goals include malaria control as a priority and large investments are underway to promote effective prevention and treatment. Despite such concerted supply-side efforts, malaria-related mortality and morbidity still abound due to a complex interface of factors like climate-change, poverty, inadequate control behavior, infection and prevention externalities, parasite resistance etc. This research project digs into the demand-side of the health problem, considers the "externality" dimension to prevention, and primarily asks the question: how do individuals in developing countries view competing disease-control (prevention) measures, viz. a publicly-administered community-level malaria control measure as against private preventive choices. A theoretical model is developed to help explore the public-private interplay of health risks of malaria. The malaria-endemic regions of Kolkata (India) and its rural fringes comprise the site for an empirical investigation. A field survey (Malaria Risk and Prevention Survey, October-December, 2011) incorporating a mix of stated and revealed preference techniques of health valuation is implemented. Risk-perceptions of respondents are elicited using a measurable visual-aid and individuals' perceived valuations of health-risk reductions, randomly offered with the public and private health treatments, are empirically ascertained. Using a Likelihood Ratio Test on the structural risk parameters, it is seen that individuals’ valuations of health risk reductions are the same across the private and public treatments. The comparative valuation iv exercise, thus, corroborates the externality dimension to malaria control, calling for greater public action to combat malaria. The viability of such a scaled-up public malaria program, in the context of Kolkata, is discussed by comparing the public treatment willingness to pay estimates with the annual estimated costs that the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, the civic body in the city of Kolkata, maintains on account of vector control. Results from the comparative valuation exercises also support the idea that private prevention is generally responsive to prevention costs, indicating the importance of price incentives to induce greater prevention. The issues of health valuation and price sensitivity are further explored across various split-samples differentiated on the basis of socio-economic attributes, disease exposure, actual prevention efforts and perceived malaria risks of survey respondents. Such auxiliary exercises help analyze the valuation question in greater depth, and generate policy insights into the potential factors that shape private prevention behavior.

No description available.

由於社會變遷迅速，文化資產保存工作，無論在有形或無形資產方面均面臨了嚴苛的挑戰。許多為保存歷史建物、遺址、文物或技藝之民間組織或政府文化機構無不極力爭取以獲得必要的經費資源，以防止文化資產的快速流逝。近年來政府對文化資源的投入程度受到廣泛關注，在財政緊縮下，政府削減各項支出中有關文化設施之補助，或限縮地方政府的文化預算，引起各界對文化預算資源配置問題的熱烈討論，導致以經濟觀點衡量文化產出或文化設施之評價日顯重要。在俱歷史性之藝術或文化資源領域，由於其價值無法快速藉由市場價格機制訂出來，衡量文化政策之最適資源投資一直引起激烈爭議，在各部會資源競爭之下，為了獲得足夠的預算分配，政府各部門必須彰顯其對整體經濟效益之貢獻，因此近年來越來越多研究針對非市場財貨之公共投資進行經濟效益評估。調查民眾對文化公共財的願付價格，除可顯示民眾對文化公共財偏好強度以進行成本效益分析外，亦可作為該文化機構自行籌措財源擬訂定價策略之參考，並可提供政府當局財政配置及公共投資之依據，本篇研究將以非市場財貨評估中之條件評估法，以文建會所屬文化機構國立傳統藝術中心為例，求算民眾對該機構之願付價格。 / 實證結果，在估計參數值部份，發現文化資產保存重要性認同度、文化資產遺贈價值認同度、文化資產預算擴編認同度、年齡、文化產業消費頻率等變數，對受訪者的支付意願均有顯著影響；第一階段與第二階段的詢價金額係數估計值為負並且顯著，表示當詢價金額提升時，受訪者會傾向於不願意支付。在單界二元選擇問答下，Logit模型估算其值為181.56元，Probit模型估算其值為199.12元，在95％信心水準下區間估計值Logit模型其值為191.56元到171.56元之間，Probit模型其值為205.90元到192.34元之間；在雙界二元選擇問答下以Bivariabe Probit 估算結果得到第一次詢價的願付價格為145.69元，第二次詢價的願付價格為218.42 元，實證結果單界與雙界二元選擇模型願付價格差異不大。 / Nowadays, historic building, monument, and artifacts, facing difficult issue of damaging, are quickly dying away. Agencies and organizations whose mission is to protect and preserve historic and culturally important building, monument, and artifacts from the ravages of weather, pollution, development, and even use by the general public must compete urgently for needed resources. Government funding of the cultural arts has received considerable attention in recent years. Efforts to cut funding to the national endowment for the culture and declining budgets for public cultural organizations and art institution have raised questions about how much individuals value the culture and arts. Measuring the economic value of particular arts policies or public cultural organizations is difficult and important. The hard case for measuring economic value of cultural resources is that they are not captured readily by market prices. The appropriate resources to be allocated in public cultural or art institutions often get heated and considerable debate. Valuing the willingness to pay for cultural public goods, not only can be applied for measuring economic value to be used in benefit-cost analysis of public project, but also more efficient in the selection of investment program if the total value（use value and non-use value）can be estimated. The purpose of this study is using one of the non-market goods valuation method, contingent valuation method, to elicit a willingness to pay from individual for hypothetical changes in some situation, further more to value the use value and non-use value of the“National Center for Traditional Art ”. / The variables such as the IMPO,BEQU, BUDG, AGE, FRE1, have a significant positive effect on the WTP for a cultural public good valuing. The table broadly indicates that as the bid level is increased, the number of willing to pay the amount decreased. The empirical results show that under the single-bounded dichotomous choice model, the estimated WTP for Logit model is NT$181.56 and for Probit model is NT$199.12. Under the 95％ confidence, for Logit mode the estimated WTP is between NT $191.56 and NT $171.56, and for Probit model is between NT $205.90 and NT $192.34. Under the double-bounded dichotomous choice model, Bivariate Probit model was adopted to estimate the WTP. The first-estimated WTP is NT $145.69, and second-estimated WTP is NT $218.42. The estimated WTP under double bounded dichotomous choice model is not much different from the estimated WTP under single bounded dichotomous choice model.

Les nouvelles technologies médicales contribuent aux dépenses en santé qui ne cessent de croître, alors que les budgets se trouvent limités. L’évaluation économique des technologies devraient permettre d’identifier quelles sont celles qui sont les plus rentables. Malgré cela, plusieurs technologies dont le rapport coût-efficacité reste plutôt limite ou défavorable sont utilisées en médecine moderne et remboursées par notre système public de santé. Ce mémoire se concentre sur deux technologies en santé cardiovasculaire dont le rapport coût-efficacité est plutôt limite mais qui sont fréquemment utilisées au Canada; les tuteurs médicamentés ou pharmaco-actifs et les défibrillateurs cardiaques implantables (DCI). Nous avons fait une évaluation contingente de ces technologies dans le but d’examiner si ce type d’évaluation économique complémentaire pouvait procurer un point de vue nouveau sur la valeur économique et sociétaire des ces technologies. Les résultats de ces deux évaluations indiquent que les patients accordent une grande importance aux bénéfices que procurent ces deux technologies. Nos résultats soutiennent les politiques de santé actuelles de rembourser de façon libérale ces deux technologies. / Technological innovations have greatly contributed to the rising costs in healthcare, while budgets have remained limited. Economic evaluations of technologies should identify which technologies are cost-effective. However, several technologies used in modern medicine are either borderline cost-effective or even not cost-effective according to many studies. This thesis focuses on two technologies in cardiovascular medicine which are considered borderline cost-effective; drug-eluting stents and implantable cardioverter defibrillators. We conducted a contingent valuation of these technologies in hopes of determining if this alternative type of economic evaluation could give a novel point of view on the economic and societal value of these technologies. Results indicated that patients greatly valued benefits provided by these two technologies. Our result support our public healthcare system policies’ of liberal reimbursement of these two technologies.

Les services écosystémiques (SE) réfèrent aux bénéfices que produisent et soutiennent la biodiversité et les écosystèmes et qui profitent à l’être humain. Dans beaucoup de cas, ils ne sont pas pris en compte dans le système économique. Cette externalisation des SE engendre des décisions sur l’utilisation du territoire et des ressources naturelles qui ignorent leur contribution à la qualité de vie des communautés. Afin notamment de sensibiliser l’opinion publique à l’importance des SE et de mieux les intégrer dans les processus décisionnels, ont été développées des démarches d’évaluation économique des SE. Dans cette thèse, nous avons cherché à comprendre à la fois comment l’utilisation passée et actuelle des sols dans la région de Montréal affecte la valeur des SE et comment ces aménités naturelles sont perçues et valorisées par la population, dans une perspective d’aménagement futur du territoire. Pour ce faire, nous avons utilisé deux approches : l’analyse spatiale recourant aux systèmes d’information géographique et l’analyse des préférences exprimées par des techniques d’enquête. Pour l’analyse spatiale, nous avons combiné des analyses cartographiques à des valeurs monétaires associées aux SE publiées dans la littérature. Nous avons alors estimé la valeur des écosystèmes d’un territoire par le transfert de bénéfices, de prix de marchés directs et de coûts évités. Cette démarche nous a permis de comprendre la relation entre l’utilisation actuelle du territoire du Grand Montréal écologique et la valeur des services fournis par les écosystèmes, que nous avons estimée à 2,2 milliards de dollars par année. Elle nous a permis aussi de mesurer les effets sur la valeur des SE du changement d’utilisation des sols entre les années 1960 et 2010. Nous avons montré que malgré différentes politiques de contrôle et d’encadrement de l’étalement urbain au cours de cette période, les pertes économiques non marchandes liées aux SE s’élèvent à 236 millions de dollars par année. Pour l’analyse des préférences exprimées, nous avons utlilisé deux méthodes, l’évaluation contingente et le choix multi-attributs, avec l’objectif de mesurer le consentement à payer de répondants pour des variations dans l’aménagement du territoire. Nous avons montré d’une part que les répondants valorisent significativement l’incidence des pratiques agro-environnementales sur la qualité de l’environnement et des paysages en consentant à payer entre 159 et 333 dollars par ménage par année pour une amélioration de la diversité du paysage agricole. D’autre part, leur volonté à payer pour l’amélioration de l’état des milieux humides du Québec est estimée entre 389 et 455 dollars par ménage par année. L’utilisation conjointe des deux méthodes nous a permis d’en comparer les résultats. Nous avons en outre démontré que le choix du format de question de valorisation de l’évaluation contingente affecte la convergence des résultats. Enfin, nous avons proposé des pistes de recherches futures portant sur l’intégration des démarches d’analyse biophysique, économique et politique dans des outils de prise de décision mieux adaptés à la dynamique des écosystèmes, de la biodiversité et des communautés humaines. / Ecosystem services (ES) refer to benefits produced and sustained by biodiversity and ecosystems that benefit humans. In many cases, they are not considered in the economic system. This externalization of SE generates decisions on land use and natural resources that ignore their contribution to the well-being of communities. In order to raise awareness of the importance of ES and better integrate them into decision-making processes, economic approaches to value ES have been developed. In this thesis, we sought to understand both how the past and current land use in the Montreal area affects the value of ES and how these natural amenities are perceived and valued by the population in a future planning and management perspective. To accomplish this, we used two approaches: spatial analysis using geographic information systems and analysis of stated preferences by survey techniques. In the spatial analysis approach, we combined cartographic analyzes to monetary values associated to ES published in the literature. We then estimated the value of ecosystems using benefit transfer, direct market prices and avoided costs methods. This approach has allowed us to understand the relationship between the current land use in the Greater Montreal and the economic value of the services provided by ecosystems, which we estimated at 2.2 billion dollars per year. It also allowed us to estimate the effects of land use changes between 1960 and 2010 on the value of ES. We showed that despite different land use planning policies implemented to manage urban sprawl during this period, non-market economic losses related to ES have reached 236 million dollars per year. In the stated preferences approach, we used two methods, contingent valuation and choice experiment, with the aim of measuring the willingness to pay of respondents for proposed changes in their environment. In a first study, we showed that respondents significantly value the impact of agri-environmental practices on the quality of the environment and landscapes and are willing to pay between 159 and 333 dollars per household per year on improving the diversity of agricultural landscape. In a second study, their willingness to pay on improving the status of wetlands in Quebec is estimated at between 389 and 455 dollars per household per year. The combined use of the two methods allowed us to compare the results. We also demonstrated that the choice of valuation question format in contingent valuation affects the convergence of the results. Finally, we propose directions for future research related to the integration of ecological, economic and political analyzes of ES that would lead to better assessments of the dynamics of ecosystems, biodiversity and human communities.

Ziel dieser Arbeit ist die Ermittlung des ökonomischen Wertes einer Öffentlichen Bibliothek in einer deutschen Mittelstadt. Dabei werden die Wertschätzung beeinflussende Faktoren identifiziert und die Einschätzungen der Bevölkerung (Bibliotheksnutzer und Nicht-Nutzer) mit der der politischen und administrativen Vertreter kontrastiert. Im theoretischen Teil wird der Forschungsstand zur Wert- und Wirkungsmessung dargelegt und in den Kontext der wirkungsorientierten Verwaltungsführung gestellt. Außerdem wird das Konzept der Lebensstile erläutert. Im empirischen Hauptteil wird eine schriftliche Befragung zur ökonomischen Wertschätzung der Stadtbibliothek Melle ausgewertet. Zwei parallele Umfragen richteten sich zum einen an Einwohner der Stadt Melle und zum anderen an politische und administrative Vertreter. Neben der ökonomischen Wertzumessung, ausgedrückt als Zahlungsbereitschaft (Anwendung der Kontingenten Bewertungsmethode), stehen die Aspekte Lebensstil-Typen nach Gunnar Otte, Bibliotheksnutzung, sowie die Stellung im Familien-/Lebenszyklus als beeinflussende Faktoren im Mittelpunkt der Auswertung. Die geäußerten Zahlungsbereitschaften der Bevölkerung und der Politiker werden verglichen. Es wird eine Relation von Zahlungsbereitschaft zu „Ergebnis je Einwohner“ (finanzbuchhalterische Kennzahl) als Indikator für die Wertschätzung gebildet. / The aim of this study is to determine the economic value of a public library in a medium-sized town in Germany. The factors influencing the value must first be identified and the population’s (both library users and non-users) appreciation must be compared with those of their political and administrative representatives. In the theoretical section of this study the current state of research in value and impact assessment will be explained and presented within the context of impact-oriented administration (New Public Management). The concept of lifestyles will also be explained. The main, empirical section of the study concentrates on the assessment of a written questionnaire (mail survey) on the economic value of the Melle Public Library. Two parallel questionnaires were conducted; one for the population of the city of Melle and one for their political and administrative agents. In addition to the economic rating of the library, expressed as willingness-to-pay (under application of the contingent valuation method) at the core of the assessment, the analysis focuses on the aspects of lifestyle types according to Gunnar Otte, library use and position within the family or life cycle as influencing factors. The expressed willingness-to-pay of the population will be directly compared with that of the politicians. A ratio of willingness-to-pay and the result-per-resident (an economic value) will be generated and thereby an indicator of value determined.

根據環保署統計得知92年平均每人每日垃圾產生量為0.901公斤，該年垃圾總產量約為736萬公噸，清除處理廢棄物的方法，除了過去在各鄉鎮設置垃圾掩埋場，將廢棄物當地掩埋外，還有就是興建垃圾焚化廠來替代垃圾掩埋場，以減少取得垃圾掩埋場用地的困難。雖然傳統的公營、民營的一般掩埋場與衛生掩埋場則逐年減少，但仍高達了千座以上，全台各鄉鎮幾乎皆可看見。 因為垃圾處理設施的存在，令人覺得居家週遭的生活環境不寧適。廢棄物與其他環境介質之聯結有很大的相關性，單純針對廢棄物本身所造成的污染損害進行質損估算，是困難度較高的工作。但是垃圾處理設施本身所造成不寧適感受的損害並不包含在這些相關帳表中，而可以使用損害評估法的方式加以估算表示，因此本研究之目的在於調查垃圾處理設施帶給人們不寧適感受的質損。 此種不寧適的污染損害與賠償並不存在市場交易，無法藉由市場上的供給與需求來反應民眾所遭受的質損，因此本研究採用假設市場價值評估法(contingent valuation method)之問卷的方式，調查民眾願意改善環境品質的願付價值(willingness to pay)與願意接受環境惡化的情況下，願意接受的補償價值(willingness to accept)，民眾的WTP/WTA可視為受損害的環境價值，即為廢棄物處理設施所可能產生的質損。 / The producing amount of the one’s rubbish was 0.901 kilograms every day in 2003 according to the statistics in the Environmental Protection Administration. Total output of rubbish is about 7,360,000 metric tons that year. The method of cleaning the rubbish is building landfills and incinerators in every county. But now it is hard to get the specific land to build landfill, and the government policy is that an incinerator substitute for the all landfills in a county. Though the public and private landfills decrease gradually every year, it still had several thousand landfills in Taiwan. Because of the existence of the rubbish treatment facilities, it always makes the living environment of the surrounding area at home not feel peaceful and lose amenity. The purpose of this research lies in investigating the damage that the rubbish treatment facilities cause non-amenity to people. These kinds of pollution damage and compensation do not exist the market. We can’t use the supply, demand and price in the market to response the non-amenity damage of the feeling of Residents. So our research takes the survey to investigate how much resident would be willing to pay for improving the environment amenity and willing to accept for worsening the environment amenity. The people's WTP/WTA can be regarded as the value of the environmental damage from the rubbish treatment facilities.