ABSTRACT
This chapter is about the hypothesis that people place monetary values on natural resources and environmental characteristics that are independent of any present or future use these people might make of those resources. For example, people may gain utility from their knowledge that the Grand Canyon is preserved even though they expect never to visit the Grand Canyon. People may be willing to pay to ensure the survival of whales, eagles, and other endangered species even though they never expect to see them. Lying behind this hypothesis is the assumption that there is a meaningful way to define use so that values that arise from use can be distinguished from those that are independent of use. This assumption is discussed below.
