Public preferences for endangered species recovery: an examination of geospatial scale and non-market values

Non-market valuation allows society to express their preferences for goods and services whose economic value is not reflected in traditional markets. One issue that arises in applying non-market values in policy settings is defining the extent of the economic jurisdiction—the area that includes all people who hold values—for a good or service. In this paper, we estimate non-market values for recovering eight threatened and endangered marine species in the US for two geographically embedded samples: households on the west coast of the US and households throughout the nation. We statistically compare species values between the two samples to help determine the extent of and variation in the economic jurisdiction for endangered species recovery. Our findings offer support to the tenet that the summation of non-market values across the country is appropriate when evaluating alternative policies for endangered species recovery.