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Four convenience samples comprising customers of two IKEA stores, one in England the other in Norway, were obtained for the purpose of investigating willingness to pay (WTP) for an environmental attribute through certification and eco-labelling. Two survey-based valuation methods were applied in each store: conjoint analysis (CA) and contingent valuation (CV). In the sample of English IKEA customers responding to CA questions, extra median WTP for the eco-labelled alternative was 16% of the price of the existing unlabelled alternative. In the sample responding to CV questions, median estimate of the price premium was 7.5%. In the samples of Norwegian IKEA customers, the CA median was 2%, while the CV median was 6%. Only in the English cases did the relation between CA and CV estimates turn out as expected.

Stated choice studies have been applied regularly to the valuation of time savings and other attributes of travelling as perceived by individuals. In such experiments, respondents often provide reference levels for the attributes and the hypothetical choices presented to them are pivoted around actual behaviour. However, most individuals are not able to provide reference levels for the number of casualties on the road they travel. Thus, if valuation of this important element is attempted, it is the researcher who must provide casualty risk reference levels to the respondents. Some studies have applied route choice experiments including a safety attribute but the majority have been limited to only one particular road section with a common baseline risk for all respondents.This study discusses the setting up and results of a more generalized route choice experiment including a safety attribute. Respondents provided, at an initial stage, their travel times and costs related to a recent trip by car. Then, expected numbers of casualties for different trip lengths were calculated based on travel distances and traffic densities. So, the calculated number of severe injuries and fatalities (casualties) per year, on the road section the respondent had travelled, entered as a third attribute in the choices, together with the reported travel times and costs. Route choice was analysed using multinomial logit and mixed logit models. From the latter models we obtained point estimates for the value of the statistical life ranging from € 7.3 million to € 19.1 million.

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Economic unit values of soundscape/acoustic effects have been based on changes in the number of annoyed persons or on decibel changes. The normal procedure has been the application of these unit values to noise-attenuation measures affecting the noisier façade of a dwelling. Novel modular vegetation-based soundscape measures, so-called green walls, might be relevant for both noisy and quieter areas. Moreover, their benefits will comprise noise attenuation as well as non-acoustic amenity effects. One challenge is to integrate the results of some decades of non-acoustic research on the amenity value of urban greenery into design of the urban sound environment, and incorporate these non-acoustic properties in the overall economic assessment of noise control and overall sound environment improvement measures. Monetised unit values for green walls have been included in two alternative cases, or demonstration projects, of covering the entrances to blocks of flats with a green wall. Since these measures improve the noise environment on the quiet side of the dwellings and courtyards, not the most exposed façade, adjustment factors to the nominal quiet side decibel reductions to arrive at an estimate of the equivalent overall acoustic improvement have been applied. A cost-benefit analysis of the green wall case indicates that this measure is economically promising, when valuing the noise attenuation in the quieter area and adding the amenity/aesthetic value of the green wall.

When the risks of unwanted events and the impacts of countermeasures are well-known, an economic assessment would compare the costs of the measures with the benefits of reduced risk. For evaluating countermeasures against terrorist attacks this is, however, not straight-forward. Both the baseline risk of terrorist attacks and the possible risk-reducing impacts of the security measures adopted are largely unknown. A possible approach to the economic assessment in such cases is to adopt inverse ex post economic analyses. Inverse ex post analysis in our case will be an assessment of already implemented security measures at Norwegian airports/seaports, trying to inversely estimate implicit benefits for estimated terror risks and risk changes due to the implemented measures. Such implicit benefits might be measured as implicit costs of lives saved or, more generally, as an implicit value of what is protected in airports and in seaports. Our analysis indicates that for justifying the costs of the implemented security measures, it implies huge cost per life saved and a quite enormous valuation of what the measures protect. A low estimated baseline risk of terror attacks explains to a large degree these findings. Nevertheless, even if fatalities represent a major societal cost of terrorist attacks, there are other potential costs regarding infrastructure, that to a large degree have been disregarded in our analyses. If all potential societal costs could be included, this would justify a higher level of security spending, but not necessarily the levels that our estimates indicate.

Even in protected areas, it is inevitable that any human use will produce some impact on natural resources. This study identifies visitors' tolerance of potential negative ecological impacts from tourism activities and facilities in a Norwegian national park context, based on park visitors' expressed degree of acceptance of negative effects on particular species of wildlife (wild reindeer and raptors) and on vegetation. Attitudes were analysed using psychographic scales, reflecting respondents' nature orientations, their specific facility desires, their preferences in a wilderness setting and their concerns about human interaction with the natural environment. Fourteen research hypotheses were tested. Findings demonstrated that the psychographic scales explained more variation in attitudes than most social background and trip characteristics. Higher levels of education among visitors were strongly associated with increased ecological concern; age and gender were not. There was generally strong ecological awareness and ecocentrism among park visitors in general, with a small proportion of wilderness purists. Better trail conditions, signposting and interpretation were sought. But park visitors were also found to possess a complex mixture of needs and drivers. The study found significant potential for strategic alliances between tourism and conservation interests, and key value issues for park governance systems.