摘要：Estimates of environmental values are frequently required as inputs to cost-benefitanalyses when evaluating alternative options for managing natural resources. Onestrategy to avoid the high cost of conducting empirical work when non-market valuesare involved is to use value estimates from an existing source study and to transferthem to the target context of interest (a practice known as benefit transfer). How-ever, the transfer of values is subject to a host of potential errors and could lead tosignificant overestimation or underestimation of welfare change. The present paperreports the results of a choice modelling study in which household values for theimpacts of land and water degradation in Australia are estimated. A key objectiveof the present study was to test the validity of transferring estimates derived in anational context to different regional contexts. On the basis of these test results,inferences are made about the impact that differing contexts have on value estimates.The scale of value differences across the different contexts provides a guide for calibrat-ing benefit transfer estimates.
