Meta-Analysis of Stated Preference Environmental Valuation Studies in China, with Implications for Benefit Transfer

Abstract

As an approach for nonmarket valuation, benefit transfer uses the results of existing studies to predict the values of goods and services at sites where original valuation studies have not been conducted. It has the advantage of saving time and funding, but it depends heavily on the characteristics of the original studies as well as the transfer method. Considering the increasing demand for environmental valuation in China, benefit transfer may play an important role in assisting natural resource and environment management. This Master’s project created a database of stated preference studies on environmental valuation in China (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan), and it applied a meta-analytic benefit transfer approach to the database to study factors that influence willingness to pay and the accuracy of alternative benefit transfer methods. The results indicated that the number of stated preference valuation studies in China has increased in recent decades, but the studies are distributed unevenly across the country and focus on different environmental assets in different regions and time periods. The meta-analysis found that several variables, including response format, research format, payment interval, payment vehicle, document type, and specific environmental assets such as air quality, have a significant influence on willingness to pay estimates. A trimmed version of the full model had the best performance in terms of transfer accuracy, followed by a stepwise trimmed model, a central tendency approach, and the full model. These findings suggest that the meta-analytic benefit transfer method can serve as a useful tool for Chinese environmental management.