Topics and readings 

Discussion problems  

Weekly essays 

Research paper 

Bulletin board 

MSU

1. Environmental Policy, Demands and Valuation

Freeman, A. Myrick, "Resource Evaluation and Public Policy," in: The Measurment of Environmental and Resource Values: Theory and Methods, Washington, D.C.: Resources for the Future, 1993. 

2. The Valuation Problem: Two Cases 

Kaplowitz, Michael, and John Hoehn, "Economic Valuation of Environmental and Natural Resources," in: Nicholas Mercuro, Ecology, Law, and Economics, Lanham, NY: University Press of America, 1997 

Discussion Problem: Read the "Discovering Demand" handout and write a one page (printed, 11 point font) response to the questions posed for either the Monsanto Bt or Wetlands case. 

3. Natural Capital: Open Space and Wetlands

Hodge, Ian, "Public Policies for Land Conservation," in: Daniel W. Bromley, The Handbook of Environmental Economics, Oxford: Blackwellm 1995.

Turner, R. K, Carl Folke, I. M. Gren, and I. J. Bateman, "Wetland Valuation: Three Case Studies," in: Charles Perrings, Karl-Goran Maler, Carl Folke, C. S. Hollings, and Bengt-Owe Jansson, eds., Biodiversity Loss: Economic and Ecological Issues, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 

4. Natural Capital, Services, and Valuation

• Household production
• Idirect utility and expenditure functions
• Economic Measures of Welfare Change
• Demands and values

5. Alternative Valuation Methods

• Direct Methods
• Willingness to pay
• Contingent referendum methods

6. Constructing a Contingent Valuation Questionnaire

7. Describing the Policy Change: Is it Accurate? Do Respondents Understand?

8. Experimental Design, Sampling, and Estimates of Population Values

9. Methods for Examining Contingent Data

10. Maximum likelihood methods: Cameron's 'Censored Logit'

11. Values from Pairwise Rankings

12. Land Values and Hedonic Analysis 

13. Travel Cost Analysis

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