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Compensating for environmental damages

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  • Gastineau, Pascal
  • Taugourdeau, Emmanuelle

Abstract

This paper examines a situation in which a decision-maker determines the appropriate compensation that should be awarded for a given amount of ecological damage. The compensation can take the form of either or both monetary and environmental units to meet three goals: i) minimisation of the cost associated with the compensation, ii) no aggregate welfare loss, and iii) minimal environmental compensation requirement. The findings suggest that – in some cases – providing both monetary and environmental compensation can be the cost-minimising option. Minimal compensation constraints can increase total compensation costs but reduce individual gains and losses relative to the initial situation that arise from heterogeneous tradeoffs between income and environmental quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Gastineau, Pascal & Taugourdeau, Emmanuelle, 2014. "Compensating for environmental damages," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 150-161.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:97:y:2014:i:c:p:150-161
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.11.008
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Medin, Hege & Nyborg, Karine & Bateman, Ian, 2001. "The assumption of equal marginal utility of income: how much does it matter?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 397-411, March.
    2. Scott G. Cole, 2013. "Equity over efficiency: a problem of credibility in scaling resource-based compensation?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 93-117, March.
    3. Zafonte, Matthew & Hampton, Steve, 2007. "Exploring welfare implications of resource equivalency analysis in natural resource damage assessments," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 134-145, February.
    4. Dunford, Richard W. & Ginn, Thomas C. & Desvousges, William H., 2004. "The use of habitat equivalency analysis in natural resource damage assessments," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 49-70, January.
    5. Brekke, Kjell Arne, 1997. "The numeraire matters in cost-benefit analysis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 117-123, April.
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    8. Udo Ebert, 2003. "Environmental Goods and the Distribution of Income," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 25(4), pages 435-459, August.
    9. Jack L. Knetsch, 2007. "Biased Valuations, Damage Assessments, and Policy Choices: The Choice of Measure Matters," Research in Law and Economics, in: Research in Law and Economics, pages 345-358, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    10. Nicholas E. Flores & Jennifer Thacher, 2002. "Money, Who Needs It? Natural Resource Damage Assessment," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 20(2), pages 171-178, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kyriazi, Zacharoula & Lejano, Raul & Maes, Frank & Degraer, Steven, 2015. "Bargaining a net gain compensation agreement between a marine renewable energy developer and a marine protected area manager," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 40-48.
    2. Gastineau, Pascal & Mossay, Pascal & Taugourdeau, Emmanuelle, 2021. "Ecological compensation: How much and where?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    3. Kermagoret, Charlène & Levrel, Harold & Carlier, Antoine & Dachary-Bernard, Jeanne, 2016. "Individual preferences regarding environmental offset and welfare compensation: a choice experiment application to an offshore wind farm project," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 230-240.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environmental damage; Compensation; Welfare; Inequity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H43 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Project Evaluation; Social Discount Rate
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • Q57 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Ecological Economics

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