<i>’Helen Scarborough and Jeff Bennett have produced a work that is genuinely path-breaking. As is often the case with path-breaking work, the idea is simple enough: if people can respond to choice experiments in ways that tell us a lot about what they value and how much they value it, why would they not be able to respond to choice experiments where the options offered have different distributional consequences? Such simple ideas evade implementation not because they are so hard to think up, but because it is so easy to dismiss them as unthinkable. All credit goes to Scarborough and Bennett for busting through this particular unthinkability barrier. . . [The authors] may be surprised by the magnitude and the nature of the impact this work eventually enjoys’</i><br />- From the foreword by Alan Randall, The University of Sydney, Australia and The Ohio State University, US
Advancing the incorporation of equity preferences in policy analysis, the authors demonstrate the application of choice modeling to the estimation of distributional weights suitable for inclusion in a cost-benefit analytical framework. A platform for discussion of the challenges and opportunities of this approach is presented in the form of a detailed case study designed to estimate community preferences for different intergenerational distributions. While the case study is focused on natural resource management and environmental policy, the conceptual and methodological advances illustrated by the authors are relevant and applicable to a wider array of policy deliberations.
This book will prove a challenging and thought-provoking read for academics, students and policy makers with an interest in environmental issues and/or public sector economics.