Valuing environmental amenities with nonparametric and semiparametric methods

The dissertation consists of three essays. Each essay is presented in its own chapter beginning with chapter II. While each chapter is written as a stand alone document, the essays complement each other in subject matter, methodology and relevance to the econometrics and natural resource economics literature. In particular, the most fundamental problem investigated is how can we, as precisely as possible, value non-market goods without making parametric assumptions that may influence welfare estimates;The three essays comprising this dissertation contribute to the knowledge of the economics valuation literature in several important ways. First, semi-nonparametric and nonparametric estimators are rigorously assessed in a Monte Carlo study to determine if a methodology exists that does not rely upon the accuracy of parametric statements. The generalized maximum entropy framework is adapted to the discrete choice contingent valuation method. In addition, we investigate semi-nonparametric models in order to evaluate their fitting ability in this discrete choice setting. The estimators are applied to an important policy setting; namely, the valuation of wetlands in Iowa's prairie pothole region. Finally, the nonparametric method of Varian is adapted and extended to provide meaningful lower and upper bounds on welfare measures.