Economic Valuation of the Aquatic Biodiversity Conservation in South Korea: Correcting for the Endogeneity Bias in Contingent Valuation

authored by

Ik Chang Choi, Hyun No Kim, Hio Jung Shin, John Tenhunen, Trung Thanh Nguyen

Abstract

In this study, we use the Contingent Valuation (CV) method to estimate households' willingness to pay (WTP) for the aquatic ecosystem health (biodiversity) improvement. This paper extends CV studies by dealing with the endogenous effect of a proxy variable, namely the subjective experience of negative environmental quality changes. The results show that the correction for the endogeneity bias facilitates the efficiency of parameter estimation in the empirical model. The mean WTP per household accounts for around 46.8% (KRW 79.6) of the current water use charge (KRW 170 per cubic meter). The total benefit from conserving the biodiversity is around KRW 198.62 billion. We found several factors that affect households' WTP for fish biodiversity conservation, suggesting the importance of these factors in the formulation of water policies associated with aquatic biodiversity. In addition, the inefficient water management costs should be redistributed to other projects or new programs such as for the fish biodiversity conservation.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Environmental Economics and World Trade

External Organisation(s)

University of Bayreuth
Korea Environment Institute (KEI)
Kangwon National University

Type

Article

Journal

Sustainability (Switzerland)

Volume

9

ISSN

2071-1050

Publication date

02.06.2017

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geography, Planning and Development, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation, SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.3390/su9060930 (Access: Open)