2009 AERE Fellow: Richard T. Carson
According to the ISI Web of Science, Richard Carson tops the list as the most highly cited environmentaland resource economist of our time. Richard’s work has received over 4000 citations.
And Richard’s landmark book, “Using Surveys to Value Public Goods: The Contingent Valuation Method,” which he co-authored with sociologist Robert Mitchell, is the single most cited work in environmental and resource economics. This book developed a comprehensive view of CVM ranging from its ties to welfare economics to guidance on how to deal with survey design and statistical issues. Most importantly, it laid out the relationship between existence values and CVM. By providing a typology of the major issues associated with the use of CVM, it essentially defined the debate regarding the use of this approach. And, by incorporating insights from other social sciences, such as sociology and psychology, the book set a tone and became a role model for how economists should approach empirical data related to human behavior, emphasizing the need for good theory, good econometrics, and good data collection. The book has been described as a “brilliant nexus between theory and method.” It is no surprise that it received the AERE Publication of Enduring Quality Award in 1998.
While Richard’s book is clearly his single most influential publication, it is only one part of a much larger portfolio of research contributions on the conceptual, theoretical, and econometric issues related to using stated preferences methods and welfare economics. These include issues related to sequencing and nesting, context, incentives, and information, to name just a few. This body of work has significantly impacted how the profession understands and conducts stated preference methods for valuing public goods.
In addition to his theoretical contributions, Richard has played a major role in influential empirical studies as well. Perhaps most notable among these are his survey on the public’s willingness to pay for improvements in water quality, which has been used extensively by EPA not only in their benefit assessment of the Clean Water Act but in subsequent assessments as well; and his work on the Exxon-Valdez oil spill, which has been described as “the most extensive and influential contingent valuation study ever conducted” and was a catalyst for an enormous literature and high-profile debate regarding the use of CVM, a debate that drew in many top economists from outside our field.
Based on this wide range of theoretical and empirical contributions, one letter of support states “There is no one in the economics profession who has contributed more to the advancement and development of stated preference methods for non-market valuation than Richard.”
Although Richard is best known in the outside world for his research, AERE insiders are well-aware of his contributions to the association as well. Richard served as AERE President in 2005-2006. During his presidency, the Review of Environmental Economics and Policy was established and a new editor was selected for JEEM. Most importantly for our purposes here, the AERE Fellows Program was established. Although he was responsible for the initiation of this program, because of his role as president and then past-president, this year is actually the first year that he is eligible to receive the award himself.
For his landmark book on valuing public goods using contingent valuation surveys, and its role in promoting and understanding the use of CVM; his extensive contributions to the theory and methods underlying non-market valuation, more generally; his influential empirical work, which significantly affected public policy evaluations and debates, and his extensive service to AERE and the profession, we hereby induct Richard T. Carson as a 2009 Fellow of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
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