A Meta-Analysis Of Contingent Valuation Studies In Coastal And Near-Shore Marine Ecosystems

The ecosystem services provided by coastal and nearshore marine systems contribute significantly to human welfare. However, studies that document values of these services are widely scattered in the peer-reviewed literature. The authors collected 39 contingent valuation papers with 120 observations to conduct the first meta-analysis of the ecosystem service values provided by the coastal and nearshore marine systems. The results show that over ¾ of the variation in Willingness To Pay (WTP) for coastal ecosystem services could be explained by variables in commodity, methodology, and study quality.