Are Benefit Transfers Using a Joint Revealed and Stated Preference Model More Accurate than Revealed and Stated Preference Data Alone?

Benefit transfer refers to the application of existing information and knowledge to new contexts. It is the adaptation of economic information derived from a prior “study site” with certain resource and policy conditions and applied to a “policy site” where no data is available. Economists often lack the information for the policy site because of budget constraints, time limitations or low expected resource impacts. In this scenario, and in the need to evaluate the effect that a particular action may have, benefit transfers become a second best approach to consider economic effects that would otherwise not be accounted for (Rosenberger and Loomis 2001).