The concept of Total Economic Value of environment: A reconsideration within a hierarchical rationality
Résumé
Beyond a purely typological distinction between use, option and non-use values, these
different environmental values are not treated differently within the concept of Total
Economic Value. When expressed in monetary terms from individual preferences, these
values are incorporated into a sole approach reasoning in terms of utility.
In this paper, we argue that option and non-use values stem from more different levels of
choice problems than use values and thus, must be apprehended in a multidimensional
framework. We distinguish three levels of choice problem to which various rationality
criteria of Social Cost–Benefit Analysis are attached. This allows us to make a distinction
between the different components of the value of the environment according to the level of
problems to which they're relevant. Thus, we propose to re-interpret the concept of Total
Economic Value, particularly option and non-use values, within this multidimensional
framework. We present an application of this framework for the selection of preferred
highway route (highway A85 in France).