Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/288390 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Citation: 
[Journal:] Environmental and Resource Economics [ISSN:] 1573-1502 [Volume:] 76 [Issue:] 2-3 [Publisher:] Springer Netherlands [Place:] Dordrecht [Year:] 2020 [Pages:] 235-270
Publisher: 
Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht
Abstract: 
I study how the economic value of a heterogeneously distributed environmental public good depends on how the endowment with this good and income are distributed. I find that the effect of environmental inequality on the societal willingness to pay (WTP) for the environmental good is determined both by its substitutability and by the correlation of its provision with income. Specifically, environmental inequality decreases societal WTP for substitutes, but this effect is reversed if the environmental good is a complement or distributed strongly in favour of richer households. Moreover, I show that richer households living in places where environmental good endowment is high increases (decreases) societal WTP if and only if the environmental good is a substitute for (complement to) consumption goods. I propose novel adjustment factors for structural benefit transfer to control for differences in the spatial distribution of environmental goods. Using forest preservation in Poland as an empirical example, I find that societal WTP is up to 4% higher for equal access to forests and up to 8% higher for an equal distribution of both income and access to forests.
Subjects: 
Inequality
WTP
Heterogeneously distributed public good
Spatial distribution
Benefit transfer
Forest ecosystem services
JEL: 
D63
Q51
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
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Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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