Economic Environmental Valuation
Abstract
This chapter attempts to place a monetary value on environmental resources
describing various methods of valuing an environmental resource with respect
to costs and benefits. This is because externalities do arise from production and
consumption of goods and services that are not accounted for in a competitive
market due to market failure (Stiglitz, 1988; Hyman, 1996 and Kolstad, 2000).
Marketsfail if prices do not communicate the society's needs and constraints
accurately, thereby understating the services provided by an environmental
resource. In the worst scenario, prices do not exist to send a signal about the value
ofa resource within the environment.