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Estimating the benefits of farm animal welfare legislation using the contingent valuation method
Author(s) -
Bennett Richard M.,
Blaney Ralph J.P.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.29
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1574-0862
pISSN - 0169-5150
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-0862.2003.tb00149.x
Subject(s) - legislation , willingness to pay , contingent valuation , european union , welfare , valuation (finance) , public economics , sample (material) , economics , estimation , cost–benefit analysis , actuarial science , business , accounting , microeconomics , international economics , political science , law , market economy , chemistry , management , chromatography
This paper presents the method and findings of a contingent valuation (CV) study that aimed to elicit United Kingdom citizens' willingness to pay to support legislation to phase out the use of battery cages for egg production in the European Union (EU). The method takes account of various biases associated with the CV technique, including ‘warm glow’, ‘part‐whole’ and sample response biases. Estimated mean willingness to pay to support the legislation is used to estimate the annual benefit of the legislation to UK citizens. This is compared with the estimated annual costs of the legislation over a 12‐year period, which allows for readjustment by the UK egg industry. The analysis shows that the estimated benefits of the legislation outweigh the costs. The study demonstrates that CV is a potentially useful technique for assessing the likely benefits associated with proposed legislation. However, estimates of CV studies must be treated with caution. It is important that they are derived from carefully designed surveys and that the willingness to pay estimation method allows for various biases.