Valuing a Lake Amenity: An Upper and Lower Bound

Abstract

Valuing a useable but not market-traded asset has historically been difficult. The development of willingness-to-pay studies has allowed for two different techniques: stated preference technique, which uses the contingent valuation method, and a revealed preference technique, using existing markets (such as the housing market) to analyze differences in prices. We use existing literature on both techniques to estimate a lower- and upper- bound value for lake amenities in northeast United States.