ABSTRACT
In Chapter 4, I described several methods for inferring individuals’ values for environmental amenities from their observed choices of quantities of market goods and bundles of amenities when they are assumed to make optimal choices subject to income and other constraints. However, discussions in Chapters 4 and 5 also showed that there are many circumstances under which value measures cannot be derived from observations of individuals’ choices. In this chapter I describe a variety of methods that have in common their source of data for analysis: individuals’ responses to questions about hypothetical situations such as: “Would you pay $X for …?”, “What is the most that you would be willing to pay for …?”, “What would you do if …?”, or “Which of the following alternatives do you prefer …?” Because values are inferred from stated responses to such questions, these methods are now commonly referred to as stated preference (SP) methods.
