ABSTRACT
In this paper I am concerned with the value of the continued existence of environmental goods, which may be called ‘preservation value’: what economists have sought to capture as ‘existence value’. To simplify the discussion, I will consider only the cases where the thing is to be preserved after the life of the valuer. I will argue that the idea of a total preservation value, which is the sum of the preservation values attached to a good by a number of individuals, is meaningless, and also that it is wrong to identify preservation value with existence value, as this is ordinarily interpreted in practice. From each of these conclusions it follows that the use of contingent valuation to elicit a total value for continued existence is a mistaken procedure. A more detailed statement of the aims of the paper can be given when two important distinctions have been mentioned.
