In this study, we estimated the willingness to pay of Sicilian farmers to buy the digestate which is a by-product of anaerobic digestion process of biomass. We argued that variation of the degree of information about digestate alters farmers’ willingness to pay for it. In particular, through a second price experimental auction, we evaluated whether waiting for additional future information on digestate would influence farmers’ willingness to pay. Our results show the existence of a positive farmers’ willingness to pay for digestate and a delay effect value arising from the option value of being able to wait and learn more about the value of the digestate. This implies the necessity for policy makers to provide farmers with an appropriate level of information about the digestate’s attributes.

ESTIMATING WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR DIGESTATE: EVIDENCE FROM AN ECONOMIC EXPERIMENT FROM SICILIAN FARMERS

Roberta Selvaggi
;
Gaetano Chinnici;Gioacchino Pappalardo
2018-01-01

Abstract

In this study, we estimated the willingness to pay of Sicilian farmers to buy the digestate which is a by-product of anaerobic digestion process of biomass. We argued that variation of the degree of information about digestate alters farmers’ willingness to pay for it. In particular, through a second price experimental auction, we evaluated whether waiting for additional future information on digestate would influence farmers’ willingness to pay. Our results show the existence of a positive farmers’ willingness to pay for digestate and a delay effect value arising from the option value of being able to wait and learn more about the value of the digestate. This implies the necessity for policy makers to provide farmers with an appropriate level of information about the digestate’s attributes.
2018
Biomass; Digestate; Willingness to pay (WTP); Experimental auction.
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
7. Estimating WTP for Digestate.pdf

solo gestori archivio

Descrizione: Articolo completo
Tipologia: Versione Editoriale (PDF)
Dimensione 175.21 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
175.21 kB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11769/325956
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 10
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 8
social impact