Guidance to Enhance the Validity and Credibility of Environmental Benefit Transfers

Benefit transfer is the use of pre-existing empirical estimates from one or more settings where research has been conducted previously to predict measures of economic value or related information for other settings. These transfers offer a feasible means to provide information on economic values when time, funding and other constraints impede the use of original valuation studies. The methods used for applied benefit transfers vary widely, however, and it is not always clear why certain procedures were applied or whether alternatives might have led to more credible estimates. Motivated by the importance of benefit transfers for decision-making and the lack of consensus guidance for applied practice, this article provides recommendations for the conduct of valid and reliable transfers, based on the insight from the combined body of benefit transfer research. The primary objectives are to: (a) advance and inform benefit-transfer applications that inform decision making, (b) encourage consensus over key dimensions of best practice for these applications, and (c) focus future research on areas requiring further advances. In doing so, we acknowledge the healthy tension that can exist between best practice as led by the academic literature and practical constraints of real-world applications.