Hohenheimer Diskussionsbeiträge

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Better than their reputation : a case for mail surveys in contingent valuation
(2008) Sinphurmsukskul, Nopasom; Sangkapitux, Chapika; Neef, Andreas; Kitchaicharoen, Jirawan; Frör, Oliver; Ekasingh, Benchaphun; Ahlheim, Michael
Though contingent valuation is the dominant technique for the valuation of public projects, especially in the environmental sector, the high costs of contingent valuation surveys prevent the use of this method for the assessment of relatively small projects. The reason for this cost problem is that typically only contingent valuation studies which are based on face-to-face interviews are accepted as leading to valid results. Especially in countries with high wages face-to-face surveys are extremely costly considering that for a valid contingent valuation study a minimum of 1,000 completed face-to-face interviews is required. In this paper we try a rehabilitation of mail surveys as low-budget substitutes for costly face-to-face surveys. Based on an empirical contingent valuation study in Northern Thailand we show that the validity of mail surveys can be improved significantly if so-called citizen expert groups are employed for a thorough survey design.
Equity and aggregation in environmental valuation
(2008) Lehr, Ulrike; Ahlheim, Michael
Environmental valuation studies aim at the assessment of the social benefits or the social costs caused by some change in environmental quality (in the broadest sense). The most popular field of application of environmental valuation studies is project appraisal where the benefits arising from some environmental project (measured in terms of people's willingness to pay for that project) are assessed and confronted with the costs of the project or with the benefits from some alternative project if a choice has to be made between different projects. A closer look at the results of empirical valuation studies shows that in many surveys a negative correlation between the number auf household members and the willingness to pay (WTP) stated by a household for a project can be observed. These results are rather puzzling because in larger households more people are going to benefit from an environmental improvement than in small households. A plausible explanation for these results is that household budgets are tighter for large households than for smaller households with the same household income. Therefore, large households must state a smaller WTP for a project than smaller households with the same income and the same preferences. This might have consequences for the allocation of public funds in all cases where the realization of a specific environmental project depends on the absolute value of the aggregate social benefits it generates. In order to calculate the social benefits typically the WTPs of the different households affected by that project are added up. In this aggregation process the members of larger households have a lower weight and, therefore, their WTP has a smaller impact on the decision if a certain project is realized or not. The reason for this violation of the principle of horizontal equity is that for the computation of the social benefits not individual but household WTPs are aggregated. In this paper we suggest to use household equivalence scales for the evaluation of WTP data in order to reduce this discrimination of the members of large families. We demonstrate the effects of equivalence scales on the results of environmental valuation surveys using an empirical study carried out in Eastern Germany.
Getting people involved : a preference-based approach to water policy in China
(2009) Ahlheim, Michael
Market-oriented environmental policy instruments like taxes and fees or regulatory policy instruments like rationing are typically recommended in order to set incentives for citizens to make a sparing use of water. What is often overlooked in this context is that these instruments provoke resistance and non-compliance of citizens if they do not share the values underlying such a policy. Enforcing compliance with environmental policy instruments requires strict monitoring and the prosecution of trespassers and can be rather costly for government. The resistance to government policy and the incentives to avoid or evade the respective policy measures are the greater the less these instruments are in accordance with people's preferences, i. e. the less people accept these instruments and the goals they serve as reasonable. Compliance enforcement costs are mainly monitoring costs to identify trespassers and administration costs for their prosecution. This paper deals with possibilities to reduce such compliance costs by closing the gap between people's preferences on the one hand and government policy on the other in the case of water preservation in China.
Landslides in mountainous regions of Northern Vietnam : causes, protection strategies and the assessment of economic losses
(2008) Zeller, Manfred; Saint-Macary, Camille; Pham, Van Dinh; Nguyen, Minh Duc; Keil, Alwin; Heinke, Antonia; Frör, Oliver; Ahlheim, Michael
Landslides are a severe problem during the rainy season in many mountainous regions in Asia where forests have been cut so that mountain slopes are destabilized. In this study we analyze the extent and causes of landslides in a mountainous area in Northern Vietnam as viewed from the perspective of the concerned population. We also scrutinize the ideas of these people regarding suitable landslide protection measures and their willingness to contribute to the practical implementation of these measures. It shows that nearly all people living in this area feel highly concerned about the frequent landslide events and that they support the idea of government programs to mitigate the danger of future landslides. We measure the utility they expect from such a landslide protection program, i. e. the social value of such a program, in terms of their willingness to contribute personally to its implementation. Since budgets are tight in these rural areas where subsistence farming still prevails we also analyze the possibilities to measure these expected utility gains in terms of people's willingness to contribute working time instead of money to the proposed landslide protection program. The prospect of employing such an alternative means of contribution is, however, seen rather critical.
Sustainability and regional development
(2009) Ahlheim, Michael
While sustainable development is often viewed as a task for national governments this paper asks what can be done on a regional level. The first part of the paper deals with the general principles of sustainable development according to the concept of the sustainability triangle are explained. It is shown that while economic sustainability prevails during the first stages of the development of a country at a later stage social and environmental sustainability become essential for the mid- and long-term development and stability of an economy. In the second part it is shown that sustainable development is not a task for central government alone but is also an important challenge for regional governments. Some tasks necessary for a sustainable development like e. g. groundwater protection can even be better executed on a regional level. Therefore, special emphasis will be put on water protection in this part of the paper. In spite of the responsibility to be taken by regional governments the existence of significant spillover effects between regions makes it necessary to coordinate the policy between central government and regional governments as well as between different regional governments in order achieve overall efficient results.
Using citizen expert groups in environmental valuation : lessons from a CVM study in Northern Thailand
(2007) Ahlheim, Michael; Ekasingh, Benchaphun; Frör, Oliver; Kitchaicharoen, Jirawan; Neef, Andreas; Sangkapitux, Chapika; Sinphurmsukskul, Nopasom
In this paper we show how citizen expert groups can be used to improve the design of contingent valuation surveys. The concept of citizen expert groups combines the various advantages of focus groups and of participatory approaches like citizen juries and the market stall method. Using an empirical study in Thailand it is demonstrated that after developing the project scenario and the questionnaire in cooperation with a citizen expert group the result of the study became independent of the interview form used in the survey which was taken as an indicator for the reliability and validity of the study.Testing different elicitation question formats in our survey it showed that with the payment card format face-to-face interviews and mail interviews yielded the same social willingness to pay. A practical consequence of our findings could be that in the future costly face-to-face interviews can be substituted by much cheaper mail interviews in CVM surveys if the payment card format is used for the elicitation question and the whole survey design is optimized following the advice resulting from appropriately organized citizen expert groups.

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