Does validity matter for policymakers? Evidence from choice experiments on urban green

ABSTRACT

Stated preference methods such as choice experiments are frequently used for the valuation of environmental goods. Studies suggest that the impact of valuation results on policymaking is rare. How the validity of stated preference results is perceived by policymakers may be a neglected barrier to use in policymaking. The study investigates (1) how valuation results are used by policymakers, (2) how policymakers perceive their validity, and (3) how these perceptions matter for the use of the results. We conduct choice experiments on urban green, directly involving local policymakers in the process. The policymakers, who were interviewed later, report frequent informative use of the results. Although concerns regarding validity exist, they are not a major barrier for informative use but maybe for decisive use. Our findings provide new insights on the use of valuation results by policymakers, as our study is the first to focus on stated preference results and on the role of perceived validity and enables an in-depth analysis by interviewing policymakers involved in a transdisciplinary process. We derive recommendations for researchers on how to design and communicate stated preference studies to increase their use in environmental policy-making.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate adaptation
• decision-making
• economic valuation
• nature-based solutions
• stated preferences
• urban ecosystem services

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 All quotations have been translated from German by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung [grant number BREsilient (FKZ: 01LR1723B, 01 LR2013B), Stadtgrün Wertschätzen (FKZ 01UR1621A)].