With an ever-growing need to understand the monetary benefits of environmental conservation, the newly released second edition of “A Primer on Nonmarket Valuation” is a valuable resource for government and industry alike. The book provides common approaches to measuring nonmarket values for environmental assets, such as wilderness and water quality, for people around the globe.

“This book has wide-scale application,” said Patricia Champ, a research economist with the U.S. Forest Service and lead editor of the book. “The need to value items that do not have market prices, from land conservation to public health programs, has never been greater.” 

“Most people agree that resources without market prices, like clean air, clean water, and access to public lands, are valuable,” said U.S. Forest Service research economist Thomas Brown. “But how to measure the value of these resources requires careful application of methods that are continually being refined and improved.”

“A Primer on Nonmarket Valuation” provides straightforward explanations of how to apply the most commonly used approaches to measuring these values.

“Professionals in government agencies and the private sector use this book to understand the values of resources that do not have market prices,” said Virginia Tech Professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics Kevin Boyle. “Graduate students use this book to learn how to estimate values and experienced scientists use it to conduct state-of-the art valuation assessments.”

Originally published in 2003, the first edition of the book was written to address the lack of a “how-to” resource on valuing items that provide important services to people but that lack market prices. It was a best-seller in the Springer “The Economics of Non-Market Goods and Resources” series. The book, sold in over 26 countries, became a go-to reference for classrooms and professionals.

The second edition updates all of the chapters with contemporary best practices. New chapters address substitution methods as well as the use of experiments to understand and evaluate the validity of value estimates.

"This new edition of the Primer sets a new standard for clarity of exposition which will be a tremendous boon for students and researchers alike, defining and explaining the frontier of knowledge in the field of nonmarket valuation," said Springer series editor Ian Bateman, Director of the Land, Environment, Economics and Policy Institute, University of Exeter, United Kingdom.

The book is a collaboration between fifteen experts with a common goal of creating a comprehensive practical guide to monetary valuation in the absence of market prices, providing how-to guidance for contemporary state-of-the-art value estimation with practical examples.

The second edition of the book is available for purchase through Springer.

 

*This release produced by the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station and the Virginia Tech Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.

 

Contacts:

Jennifer Hayes

U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station - Public Affairs Specialist

970-498-1365

 

Kevin Boyle

Virginia Tech - Director of the Program in Real Estate

540-231-2907