Browsing by Person "Siepmann, Ute"

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    Labour as a utility measure reconsidered
    (2017) Pham, Van Dinh; Ahlheim, Michael; Frör, Oliver; Nguyen, Minh Duc; Rehl, Antonia; Siepmann, Ute
    In Stated Preference studies for the appraisal of environmental projects in poor countries or regions it often turns out that the stated willingness to pay of people for environmental improvements, which is used as measure of individual welfare changes, is very low. This is often interpreted as the result of extremely tight budget constraints, which make it impossible that people express their true appreciation of an environmental project in terms of their willingness to pay for it. Therefore, it is sometimes suggested to use labour contributions instead of money as a numeraire to measure utility in such studies. In this paper we show theoretically and empirically that this suggestion is not compatible with the principles of welfare theory because of several inconsistencies. We also illustrate the validity of our arguments empirically based on the results of a Contingent Valuation study conducted in a rural area in northern Vietnam.
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    WeChat – using social media for the assessment of tourist preferences for environmental improvements in China
    (2018) Yu, Xiaomin; Siepmann, Ute; Neidhardt, Jan; Ahlheim, Michael
    Environmental valuation studies with tourists have been very popular already over a long period of time. Tourists are an important stakeholder group with respect to the decision if some environmental project in a tourist region should be realized or not. Typically such studies are organized as face-to-face surveys conducted in the respective vacation areas. Tourists are asked their willingness to pay (e.g. in terms of higher entrance fees for certain amenities on site or a mark-up on accommodation prices etc.) for the implementation of an environmental project or preservation measure in that area. Based on theoretical considerations we argue that in the special case of tourist surveys internet-based surveys are preferable to face-to-face surveys under validity aspects as well as under the aspect of the representativeness of the survey results. Based on an empirical valuation study we conducted in Southwest China we illustrate the practical problems arising in the context of internet surveys in developing or threshold countries.