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Policy support tool

Time-Use Studies

Time use study is an innovation of the conventional stated preference techniques, in particular taken from the contingent valuation approach. In this case, the payment vehicle is expressed in labour hours rather than monetary units (use in the classical willingness to pay studies). Willingness to give up time (WTT) creates a hypothetical scenario using surveys to estimate the value of ecosystem services by directly asking people how much time they would willing to invest for a change in the quantity or quality of a given ecosystem service or conservation plan. This approach is also useful in areas with income constrains where money is basically used for essential goods.

Requirements for using the resource NEW
  • Need to collect lots of new data
  • Advanced statistical knowledge and econometric modelling skills are necessary
Potential benefits from using the resource
Useful in contexts where severe income constrains makes WTP studies inappropriate
Avoids incommensurability issues resulted from the assignation of monetary value to service properties that could not be monetarily measured
Potential limitations from using the resource
WTT is unsuitable for application to cases in which the respondents have little time availability
Modeling WTT processes requires the inclusion of the time availability as an explanatory variable. Therefore, a daily time analysis should be included in the questionnaire, which is however time consuming and often tiring for respondents
Classical methodological biases from conventional stated preference methods could occur
UN languages in which the resource is available
Development stage
Full, working product
Marina García-Llorente
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Is the resource freely available?
No
Do you want to add more details?
No

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