What Can Discrete-Choice Experiments Tell Us about Patient Preferences? An Introduction to Quantitative Analysis of Choice Data.

This paper provides an introduction to statistical analysis of choice data using example data from a simple discrete-choice experiment (DCE). It describes the layout of the analysis dataset, types of variables contained in the dataset, and how to identify response patterns in the data indicating data quality. Model-specification options include linear models with continuous attribute levels and non-linear continuous and categorical attribute levels.

Perceptions of the seriousness of major public health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic in seven middle-income countries.

Introduction: Public perception of the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to six other major public health problems (alcoholism and drug use, HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, lung cancer and respiratory diseases caused by air pollution and smoking, and water-borne diseases like diarrhea) is unclear. We designed a survey to examine this issue using YouGov's internet panels in seven middle-income countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America in early 2022.

Methods: Respondents rank ordered the seriousness of the seven health problems using a repeated best-worst question format.

The economics of conservation debt: a natural capital approach to revealed valuation of ecological dynamics.

Some species are valued for their direct usefulness to society, through immediate financial returns from market activities such as harvesting or ecotourism. But many are valued for their passive usefulness, i.e.

Assessing ecological infrastructure investments.

Conventional markets can underprovide ecosystem services. Deliberate creation of a market for ecosystem services [e.g.

Status-quo management of marine recreational fisheries undermines angler welfare.

Recreational fisheries can have a significant impact on fish populations and can suffer from the same symptoms of open access as commercial fisheries. However, recreational fisheries receive little attention compared with their commercial counterparts. Regulations designed to allocate scarce fish, such as seasonal closures and bag limits, can result in significant losses of value to anglers.

Baseline risk and marginal willingness to pay for health risk reduction.

Empirical results presented in this paper suggest that parents' marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) for a reduction in morbidity risk from heart disease is inversely related to baseline risk (i.e., the amount of risk initially faced) both for themselves and for their children.

Selection of reserves for woodland caribou using an optimization approach.

Habitat protection has been identified as an important strategy for the conservation of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus). However, because of the economic opportunity costs associated with protection it is unlikely that all caribou ranges can be protected in their entirety. We used an optimization approach to identify reserve designs for caribou in Alberta, Canada, across a range of potential protection targets.

Sustainable forest management preferences of interest groups in three regions with different levels of industrial forestry: an exploratory attribute-based choice experiment.

The challenge of sustainable forest management is to integrate diverse and sometimes conflicting management objectives. In order to achieve this goal, we need a better understanding of the aspects influencing the preferences of diverse groups and how these groups make trade-offs between different attributes of SFM. We compare the SFM preferences of interest groups in regions with different forest use histories based on the reasoning that the condition of the forest reflects the forest use history of the area.

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) potential economic impact on cervid farming in Alberta.

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) was found in wild deer populations in the province of Alberta, Canada, in 2005, and there is concern that this finding could create significant costs related to the farmed elk and deer industry. These potential costs or "values at risk" can be used to assess the economic returns from CWD containment and eradication programs. Cost estimates of CWD to cervid farms range from $12 million for additional farm fencing to hundreds of millions of dollars in payments by governments to discontinue cervid farming.

Modeling opportunity costs of conservation in transitional landscapes.

Conservation scientists recognize the urgency of incorporating opportunity costs into conservation planning. Despite this, applications to date have been limited, perhaps partly because of the difficulty in determining costs in regions with limited data on land prices and ownership. We present methods for estimating opportunity costs of land preservation in landscapes or ecoregions that are a changing mix of agriculture and natural habitat.

Economic benefits of biodiversity exceed costs of conservation at an African rainforest reserve.

Economic research on biodiversity conservation has focused on the costs of conservation reserves and the benefits of intact ecosystems; however, no study has simultaneously considered the costs and benefits of species diversity, a fundamental component of biodiversity. We quantified the costs and benefits of avian biodiversity at a rainforest reserve in Uganda through a combination of economic surveys of tourists, spatial land-use analyses, and species-area relationships. Our results show that revising entrance fees and redistributing ecotourism revenues would protect 114 of 143 forest bird species (80%) under current market conditions.

Incorporating natural capital into economy-wide impact analysis: a case study from Alberta.

Traditionally, decision-makers have relied on economic impact estimates derived from conventional economy-wide models. Conventional models lack the environmental linkages necessary for examining environmental stewardship and economic sustainability, and in particular the ability to assess the impact of policies on natural capital. This study investigates environmentally extended economic impact estimation on a regional scale using a case study region in the province of Alberta known as the Foothills Model Forest (FMF).