Benefit Transfer Combining Revealed and Stated Preference Data

Benefit transfers often combine data from revealed preference (RP) and stated preference (SP) analyses. RP/SP estimation allows a researcher to generate more broadly-applicable benefit functions, leading to potential improvements in transfer reliability and validity. The appropriateness of various types of RP/SP data combinations within benefit transfer has also been subject to disagreement, for example with regard to the potential pooling of theoretically inconsistent welfare measures within meta-analysis. This chapter provides a summary and case study illustration of RP/SP modeling within benefit transfer. The chapter begins with an introduction to the use of these techniques for benefit transfer and typology of applicable methods. This is followed by an illustration that uses RP/SP micro-data to quantify recreational benefit changes under Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control beach nourishment and retreat scenarios. Unlike most benefit transfers in the academic literature implemented in artificial and idealized circumstances, the present case study represents an actual, policy-driven benefit transfer used within agency cost benefit analysis (CBA). The chapter concludes with a discussion of the role of RP/SP data within benefit transfer.