Valuing costs and benefits where there is no market value

5.30  Most appraisals will identify some costs and benefits for which there is no readily available market data. In these cases, a range of techniques can be applied to elicit values, even though they may in some cases be subjective. There will be some impacts, such as environmental, social or health impacts, which have no market price, but are still important enough to value separately.

5.31  Box 10 summarises the main techniques that can be used to elicit these values. Annex 2 describes these techniques in more detail, and provides further information on how they are being applied in practice.

BOX 10:  VALUATION TECHNIQUES

 

Determine whether

 

 

Impacts can be measured and quantified

 

 

AND

 

 

Prices can be determined from market data

 

 

If this cannot be
readily done

 

 

Use 'Willingness to Pay' for a benefit

'willingness to pay'

 

determined by

'revealed preference' or a subset of this called 'hedonic pricing'

 

Inferring a price from observing consumer behaviour

 

If this does not provide values,
determine whether:

 

Willingness to pay can be estimated by asking
people what they would be willing to pay for
a particular benefit

'stated 
preference'

 

or whether

 

 

In the case of a cost:

identifying the amount of compensation consumers 
would demand in order to accept it

'willingness to accept'