ABSTRACT
The hypothesis that underlies this chapter is that people can place on natural resources monetary values that are independent of their present use of those resources. Thus, if human activities lower the quantity or quality of resources, people can experience losses. For example, people might experience a loss if they knew that the Grand Canyon had been flooded by a dam, even though they never expected to visit the canyon. Or people might be willing to pay to assure the survival of whales, eagles, or other endangered species, even though they never expect to see one of them. If people hold values of this sort and the resources are damaged, they have experienced an economic loss.
