Economics of environmental risk perception, endogenous risk and self-protection

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6640497

Shogren, J F

The major goal of environmental economics is to understand how changes in environmental quality affect economic well-being. The key link between environmental quality and economic well-being is environmental perception. Incorporating perception issues in economics provides insights into individual valuation of quality changes. This research examines environmental hazards and risk evaluation in the context of perceived control, endogenous risk and self-protection. Individual risk acceptance is a key aspect of risk perception. A crucial factor in determining risk acceptance is the individual's perceived control over the risk. Three main areas are theoretically modeled and empirically examined, namely: (i) comparison of individual contributions to self-protection under certain risk exposure, uncertain risk exposure and uncertain risk exposure with endogenous risk; (ii) how the availability of self-protection affects an individual's marginal willingness to pay for a reduction in risk; and (iii) how self protection influences an individual's willingness to pay an option price for future provision of a public good. Five out of twelve theoretical propositions are empirically tested using data from a contingent valuation experiment on Oregon visibility.

• Research Organization: Wyoming Univ., Laramie (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6640497
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290200 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Economics & Sociology
290300 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Environment
Health
& Safety
530100* -- Environmental-Social Aspects of Energy Technologies-- Social & Economic Studies-- (-1989)
ATTITUDES
ECONOMIC IMPACT
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
HAZARDS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
RISK ASSESSMENT