Contingent Valuation: Economics, Law and Politics

There exists within the U.S. today, a debate that draws interest from three spheres of activity that only on occasion have interests in common. The debate concerns the technique of public good valuation known as contingent valuation (CV), and the participants in the debate are drawn from the distinct worlds of academic social science research, law, and politics. The last significant collision of economics, law and politics in the U.S. resulted in the court ordered breakup of the U.S. telecommunications monopoly (AT&T), the political trend toward deregulation of some major U.S. industries (transportation being the most notable) and the ushering in of a new and highly productive era for an old sub-discipline in economics known as industrial organization. It is likely, although not assured, that the debate surrounding CV could lead to similarly substantive results in the areas of law, public policy and social science research.