ABSTRACT
This chapter considers whether a distinction should be made between citizen and customer, as many sustain, or whether only citizens should be considered as a source of information for economic valuation. It looks at the problem of aggregating preferences, the influence of income and the possibility of using income-independent criteria. One of the most controversial problems in the environmental field are the criteria for deciding the destination and use of various environmental resources. The chapter discusses two specific problems in the application of the economic criterion of environmental valuation, with a view to correcting them. The first problem is the unreliability of preferences expressed by individuals on whom the calculation of costs and benefits is based. The second concerns the unjustifiably strong influence that richer individuals, who express “heavier” preferences, end up having on final decisions. The use of preferences as a basis for evaluating environmental resources has been the subject of another severe, though less radical, criticism.
