ABSTRACT
Methods for valuing environmental amenities have traditionally been categorized as indirect and direct. Indirect methods, like the travel cost model, use actual choices made by consumers to develop models of choice. These constitute revealed preferences over goods, both market and non-market. Direct methods ask consumers what they would be willing to pay or accept for a change in an environmental amenity. Direct methods are examples of stated preference techniques in that individuals do not actually make any behavioral changes, they only state that they would behave in this fashion.
