Hohenheimer Diskussionsbeiträge

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hohpublica.uni-hohenheim.de/handle/123456789/15830

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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.
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.
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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