Heritage, the Environment and the Arts: Pricing the priceless: Hume Papers on Public Policy Volume 6 No 3

How much should be spent in maintaining Edinburgh Castle? What payment should be provided to landowners to persuade them to preserve the environment or to protect wildlife under their control? What support should be offered by government to the arts? Policy makers are often confronted with the problem of trying to assess the value of a feature of our cultural heritage, of our environment, or of some artistic endeavour when there are either no reliable market prices or when the prices that do exist cover only part of the overall benefit derived by society. This is where the contingent valuation method offers a solution. The essays in this volume provide a comprehensive overview of the use of this technique. Using extensive examples from all three areas of heritage, environment and the arts, the coverage is comprehensive and rooted in practice, although it also includes a non-technical introduction to theory that underpins the method. This is an exciting volume that addresses issues that are increasingly finding their way onto the public policy agenda and demonstrates how decision makers can be usefully informed through careful use of contingent evaluation.