What’s up with Contingent Valuation?

In this seminar Prof. Portney will discuss the use of the contingent valuation method for natural resource damage assessment. This is a method that has been under scrutiny ever since its high profile use in the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1985. In this seminar Prof. Portney will present his recent applications of the method and the controversies that still surround its use.

Paul R. Portney is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Arizona. From 2005-2011, he was Dean of the university’s Eller College of Management. From 1972-2005, Dr. Portney worked with Resources for the Future (RFF), an independent and non-partisan think tank in Washington, D.C. specializing in energy and environmental research. He was RFF’s Vice President between 1989-1995, and President and CEO from 1995-2005. He has held visiting teaching positions at the University of California at Berkeley (1977-1979) and Princeton University (1992-1994); in 1979-1980, he was the Chief Economist for the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

A joint Whitaker Institute and SEMRU seminar.