Susana Mourato

Last updated
Susana Mourato
Alma mater Catholic University of Portugal (B.A.)

NOVA University Lisbon (M.Sc.)

University College London (Ph.D.)
OccupationEconomist

Author

Researcher
Known forEnvironmental economics

Susana Mourato is a professor of environmental economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. [1] She holds a leader position at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. [1]

Contents

Education and career

Mourato graduated with a Licentiate in economics from the Catholic University of Portugal. She then received her M.Sc. in economics from NOVA University Lisbon and a Ph.D. in environmental economics from University College London (1994–1998). She started her professional teaching career at the Catholic University of Portugal as a lecturer and researcher (1987–1994). After receiving her doctorate, she was appointed senior lecturer of environmental economics at Imperial College London (1998–2008). Currently, she is a professor of environmental economics, at the London School of Economics (2008–present) and the head of department of geography and environment since 2017.

Mourato is also a Fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE) at the University of East Anglia. [2] She is involved in Climate for Culture, part of the Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, [3] [4] an ecosystem services work package for the UK National Ecosystem Assessment, [5] and the United Nations Development Programme. [6] [7]

Research

Mourato's research interests are in economic valuation, cost–benefit analysis, well-being and life satisfaction, and cultural heritage, with a focus on economic valuation methods for the environment and its association to health impacts, ecosystem services and climate change. She has published articles in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy, Global Environmental Change, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Ecological Economics, and Energy Policy. Other works include co-authored books such as Economic Valuation with Stated Preference Techniques in association with the UK government, and the OECD Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Environment: Further Developments and Policy Use. Her current work examines the monetary values associated with environmental impacts on UK-based policies using a cost-benefit analysis approach, [8] and the perception and effectiveness of re-introducing nuclear technology in Italy. [9]

Selected Scholarship and Publications

Economic Valuation with Stated Preference Techniques: A Manual (2002)

In conjunction with the UK Department of Transport, Susana Mourato along with co-authors Ian Bateman, Richard Carson, Brett Day, Michael Hanemann, Nick Hanley, Michael Jones-Lee, Graham Loomes, Ece Ozdemiroglu, David Pearce (economist), Robert Sugden (economist), and John Swanson compiled a manual used for guiding stakeholders to assess and evaluate the monetary values of such usage and impacts from ecosystem services. The book suggests using stated preference techniques to determine the value of non-market goods and environmental effects for cost–benefit analysis. Within the book, the chapters are divided into several focuses including: economic values, measurement and techniques of economic values, stages of stated preference work and organizing the results. The authors outline the steps necessary to conduct a stated preference study by using two alternate methods: choice modelling and contingent valuation. These surveying methods concentrates on the willingness to pay by consumers and with the collected sample data to be analyzed through various statistical tests. The manual is recommended for assessing data values in policy decision making. [10]

"Are We Willing to Pay Enough to 'Back the Bid'? Valuing the Intangible Impacts of London's Bid to Host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games" (2008)

In conjunction with Giles Atkinson, Stefan Szymanski and Ece Ozemiroglum, Susana Mourato and her colleagues examines the willingness to fund the 2012 Summer Olympics held in London, England. Cost-benefit analysis are often used prior to the Olympic Games in determining the economic benefits from hosting these events. However, the selected approach was the contingent valuation method focusing on the intangible costs and benefits. Each participant, given a categories list of benefits and costs was asked to score them out of 100. The responses highlighted the relative importance of categories including a sense of national pride, environmental developments, promoting healthy living, increased risks, and transport congestions. Using a period of 10 years, results reported an average household yearly WTP of £22 (London), £11 (Glasgow), and £12 (Manchester). They found on the benefit categories ranking that "motivating/inspiring children"; "united people/feel-good factor/national pride"; and "legacy of sporting facilities" were the top three rated across all three cities of the study. On the other hand, the top three ranked intangible cost categories include: "increased safety and security risks"; "transport delays"; and "crowding". The preference of London residents for funding was through an increase in Council Tax, however, Manchester and Glasgow residents opted for the 10 year voluntary contribution instead. The paper suggests an analysis of the willingness to pay effectively explains the net benefits in favour of other forms of economic impact assessments. [11]

"The Amenity Value of English Nature: A Hedonic Price Approach" (2013)

Together with Stephen Gibbons and Guilherme M. Resende, Mourato has researched the impact of property prices associated with the desirability and amenity value of natural environments. They used the hedonic price method to broaden current evidence on environmental values by gathering a sample data of 1 million housing prices and transactions in Great Britain over a 13-year period (1996–2008). This data along with environmental variables and control variables were analyzed using the ordinary least squares regression approach. The resulting coefficients corresponds to a percent change in price compared to a change in the variables. The authors found with every 1 kilometre distance away from natural amenities, it negatively correlates to prices. They concluded on average the premium UK residents were willing to pay for proximity to environmental amenities was £1765 yearly. [12]

"Happiness is Greater in Natural Environments " (2013)

George MacKerron and Susana Mourato explores the link between human well-being and their presence in the environment that affect one's happiness scale. This paper builds on the foundation of past research to explain how happiness is tied to nature. To determine the momentary well-being, physically and mentally, the authors developed a user interactive IOS application, Mappiness. [13] MacKerron and Mourato employed the experience sampling method based on subjective well-being. The app with extensive promotion and coverage in the media collected questionnaire data based on GPS coordinates from 21,947 UK participants for the study. Individuals responded to a series of signals where the data were embedded with three indicators of spatial statistics: land cover classification, weather, and daylight setting. Through an analysis, the study explained habitat, land cover or other variables to individual happiness. The authors reported that outdoor environment was positively correlated to happiness, well-being, and health. Moreover, as the majority of higher return to happiness occurred outdoors, seaside locations scored 6 points higher on a 0 to 100 scale than in a conurbation. [14]

"Are We Willing to Give What It Takes? Willingness to Pay for Climate Change Adaptation in Developing Countries" (2015)

This paper by Susana Mourato and Tanya O'Garra explores the necessary shifts toward climate change adaptation and mitigation policies in developing countries. Resilience to climate change effects requires rigorous strategies and an available amount of resources, amongst those is capital accumulation with the support from financial and investment institutions such as the World Bank and Green Climate Fund. The authors conducted a study with a sample of 1066 electronic surveys using the contingent valuation method for willingness to pay in the form of taxes. Steps taken to conduct the analysis include: ensuring participant awareness of climate change, selecting a valuation technique and deriving the willingness to pay for an individual. It was found that the willingness to pay by United Kingdom residents to fund developing countries' adaptation to climate change was £27 or $30 USD per year. Further calculations reports on average per year, an individual's tax would have to be between $100 and $140 USD to be sufficient to properly fund the adaptation initiative. From the surveys, 45.7% of the participants were not willing to pay by way of income tax deductions. Furthermore, Mourato and O'Garra suggest more effective communication between a stakeholder's personal beliefs and understanding contributes to forming choices on public support towards successful adaptation. [15]

Select bibliography

Books

Journal articles

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental economics</span> Sub-field of economics

Environmental economics is a sub-field of economics concerned with environmental issues. It has become a widely studied subject due to growing environmental concerns in the twenty-first century. Environmental economics "undertakes theoretical or empirical studies of the economic effects of national or local environmental policies around the world. ... Particular issues include the costs and benefits of alternative environmental policies to deal with air pollution, water quality, toxic substances, solid waste, and global warming."

The value of life is an economic value used to quantify the benefit of avoiding a fatality. It is also referred to as the cost of life, value of preventing a fatality (VPF), implied cost of averting a fatality (ICAF), and value of a statistical life (VSL). In social and political sciences, it is the marginal cost of death prevention in a certain class of circumstances. In many studies the value also includes the quality of life, the expected life time remaining, as well as the earning potential of a given person especially for an after-the-fact payment in a wrongful death claim lawsuit.

Cost–benefit analysis (CBA), sometimes also called benefit–cost analysis, is a systematic approach to estimating the strengths and weaknesses of alternatives. It is used to determine options which provide the best approach to achieving benefits while preserving savings in, for example, transactions, activities, and functional business requirements. A CBA may be used to compare completed or potential courses of action, and to estimate or evaluate the value against the cost of a decision, project, or policy. It is commonly used to evaluate business or policy decisions, commercial transactions, and project investments. For example, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission must conduct cost-benefit analyses before instituting regulations or deregulations.

Contingent valuation is a survey-based economic technique for the valuation of non-market resources, such as environmental preservation or the impact of externalities like pollution. While these resources do give people utility, certain aspects of them do not have a market price as they are not directly sold – for example, people receive benefit from a beautiful view of a mountain, but it would be tough to value using price-based models. Contingent valuation surveys are one technique which is used to measure these aspects. Contingent valuation is often referred to as a stated preference model, in contrast to a price-based revealed preference model. Both models are utility-based. Typically the survey asks how much money people would be willing to pay to maintain the existence of an environmental feature, such as biodiversity.

Ecosystem valuation is an economic process which assigns a value to an ecosystem and/or its ecosystem services. By quantifying, for example, the human welfare benefits of a forest to reduce flooding and erosion while sequestering carbon, providing habitat for endangered species, and absorbing harmful chemicals, such monetization ideally provides a tool for policy-makers and conservationists to evaluate management impacts and compare a cost-benefit analysis of potential policies. However, such valuations are estimates, and involve the inherent quantitative uncertainty and philosophical debate of evaluating a range non-market costs and benefits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shadow price</span> Term in economics

A shadow price is the monetary value assigned to an abstract or intangible commodity which is not traded in the marketplace. This often takes the form of an externality. Shadow prices are also known as the recalculation of known market prices in order to account for the presence of distortionary market instruments. Shadow prices are the real economic prices given to goods and services after they have been appropriately adjusted by removing distortionary market instruments and incorporating the societal impact of the respective good or service. A shadow price is often calculated based on a group of assumptions and estimates because it lacks reliable data, so it is subjective and somewhat inaccurate.

The embedding effect is an issue in environmental economics and other branches of economics where researchers wish to identify the value of a specific public good using a contingent valuation or willingness-to-pay (WTP) approach. The problem arises because public goods belong to society as a whole, and are generally not traded in the market. Because market prices cannot be used to value them, researchers ask a sample of people how much they are willing to pay for the public good, wildlife preservation for example. The results can be misleading because of the difficulty, for individual society members, of identifying the particular value that they attach to one particular thing which is embedded in a collection of similar things. A similar problem occurs with a wider selection of public goods. The embedding effect suggests the contingent valuation method is not an unbiased approach to measuring policy impacts for cost-benefit analysis of environmental, and other government policies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economic analysis of climate change</span> Using economic tools to investigate climate change

An economic analysis of climate change uses economic tools and models to calculate the magnitude and distribution of damages caused by climate change. It can also give guidance for the best policies for mitigation and adaptation to climate change from an economic perspective. There are many economic models and frameworks. For example, in a cost–benefit analysis, the trade offs between climate change impacts, adaptation, and mitigation are made explicit. For this kind of analysis, integrated assessment models (IAMs) are useful. Those models link main features of society and economy with the biosphere and atmosphere into one modelling framework. The total economic impacts from climate change are difficult to estimate. In general, they increase the more the global surface temperature increases.

The travel cost method of economic valuation, travel cost analysis, or Clawson method is a revealed preference method of economic valuation used in cost–benefit analysis to calculate the value of something that cannot be obtained through market prices. The aim of the method is to calculate willingness to pay for a constant price facility. The technique was first suggested by the statistician Harold Hotelling in a 1947 letter to the director of the National Park Service of the United States for a method to measure the benefit of National Parks to the public. The method was further refined by Trice and Wood (1958) and Clawson (1959). The technique is one approach to the estimation of a shadow price.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental good</span> Non-market public goods

Environmental goods are typically non-market goods, including clean air, clean water, landscape, green transport infrastructure, public parks, urban parks, rivers, mountains, forests, and beaches. Environmental goods are a sub-category of public goods. Concerns with environmental goods focus on the effects that the exploitation of ecological systems have on the economy, the well-being of humans and other species, and on the environment. Users not having to pay an upfront cost and external factors like pollution that can damage environmental goods indefinitely are some of the challenges in protecting environmental goods.

The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change is a 700-page report released for the Government of the United Kingdom on 30 October 2006 by economist Nicholas Stern, chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics (LSE) and also chair of the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (CCCEP) at Leeds University and LSE. The report discusses the effect of global warming on the world economy. Although not the first economic report on climate change, it is significant as the largest and most widely known and discussed report of its kind.

Non-use value is the value that people assign to economic goods even if they never have and never will use it. It is distinguished from use value, which people derive from direct use of the good. The concept is most commonly applied to the value of natural and built resources.

The social cost of carbon (SCC) is the marginal cost of the impacts caused by emitting one extra tonne of carbon emissions at any point in time. The purpose of putting a price on a tonne of emitted CO2 is to aid policymakers or other legislators in evaluating whether a policy designed to curb climate change is justified. The social cost of carbon is a calculation focused on taking corrective measures on climate change which can be deemed a form of market failure. The only governments which use the SCC are in North America. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggested that a carbon price of $100 per tonne of CO2 could reduce global GHG emissions by at least half the 2019 level by 2030.

<i>The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity</i> Study

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) was a study led by Pavan Sukhdev from 2007 to 2011. It is an international initiative to draw attention to the global economic benefits of biodiversity. Its objective is to highlight the growing cost of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation and to draw together expertise from the fields of science, economics and policy to enable practical actions. TEEB aims to assess, communicate and mainstream the urgency of actions through its five deliverables—D0: science and economic foundations, policy costs and costs of inaction, D1: policy opportunities for national and international policy-makers, D2: decision support for local administrators, D3: business risks, opportunities and metrics and D4: citizen and consumer ownership.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economics of climate change mitigation</span> Part of the economics of climate change related to climate change mitigation

The economics of climate change mitigation is a contentious part of climate change mitigation – action aimed to limit the dangerous socio-economic and environmental consequences of climate change.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian Bateman</span> British economist

Ian Bateman OBE US-NAS FBA FEAERE FRSA FRSB is a professor of environmental economics at the Land, Environment, Economics and Policy (LEEP) Institute at the University of Exeter. He is chief editor of the journal "Environmental and Resource Economics". He was formerly a member of the Natural Capital Committee, a member of the Defra Science Advisory Council, and director of the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE).

Graham Loomes, is a British economist and academic, specialising in behavioural economics. Since 2009, he has been Professor of Economics and Behavioural Science at the University of Warwick. He previously worked at the University of Newcastle, the University of York and the University of East Anglia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clive Spash</span> Ecological economist

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natural resource valuation</span> Concept of natural resource economics

Natural resource valuation is a process of providing of benefits, costs, damage of or to natural and environmental resources. It has a fundamental role in the practice of cost-benefit analysis of health, safety, and environmental issues.

References

  1. 1 2 "Susana Mourato". Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment. Retrieved 2019-11-17.
  2. ↑ "Home - CSERGE". cserge.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  3. ↑ "Climate for Culture". www.climateforculture.eu. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  4. ↑ "Susana Mourato". London School of Economics and Political Science. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  5. ↑ "Work Package 4". uknea.unep-wcmc.org. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  6. ↑ "Economics of Climate Change Adaptation Programme in Asia and the Pacific | UNDP Climate Change Adaptation". www.adaptation-undp.org. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  7. ↑ "Environmental Cost-Benefit Analysis (Giles Atkinson and Susana Mourato, 2008) | UNDP Climate Change Adaptation". www.adaptation-undp.org. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  8. ↑ Atkinson, Giles; Groom, Ben; Hanley, Nicholas; Mourato, Susana (2018). "Environmental Valuation and Benefit-Cost Analysis in U.K. Policy". Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis. 9 (1): 97–119. doi: 10.1017/bca.2018.6 . ISSN   2194-5888.
  9. ↑ Contu, Davide; Strazzera, Elisabetta; Mourato, Susana (2016-07-01). "Modeling individual preferences for energy sources: The case of IV generation nuclear energy in Italy". Ecological Economics. 127: 37–58. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.03.008. ISSN   0921-8009.
  10. ↑ Bateman, Ian; Carson, Richard; Day, B.; Hanemann, Michael; Hanleys, Nick; Hett, T.; Jones-Lee, M.J.; Loomes, G.; Mourato, Susana; Ozdemiroglu, Ece; Pearce, David (2004-09-01). "Economic Valuation with Stated Preference Techniques: A Manual". Ecological Economics. doi:10.4337/9781781009727. ISBN   9781781009727.
  11. ↑ Atkinson, Giles; Mourato, Susana; Szymanski, Stefan; Ozdemiroglu, Ece (2008-02-01). "Are We Willing to Pay Enough to 'Back the Bid'?: Valuing the Intangible Impacts of London's Bid to Host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games". Urban Studies. 45 (2): 419–444. doi:10.1177/0042098007085971. ISSN   0042-0980. S2CID   154845698.
  12. ↑ Gibbons, Steve; Mourato, Susana; Resende, Guilherme (2014-02-01). "The Amenity Value of English Nature: A Hedonic Price Approach". Environmental and Resource Economics. 57 (2): 175–196. doi:10.1007/s10640-013-9664-9. S2CID   53131714.
  13. ↑ "Mappiness 2.0". www.mappinessapp.com. Retrieved 2019-11-26.
  14. ↑ MacKerron, George; Mourato, Susana (2013-10-01). "Happiness is greater in natural environments" (PDF). Global Environmental Change. 23 (5): 992–1000. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.03.010. ISSN   0959-3780.
  15. ↑ O'Garra, Tanya; Mourato, Susana (2016-09-01). "Are we willing to give what it takes? Willingness to pay for climate change adaptation in developing countries" (PDF). Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy. 5 (3): 249–264. doi:10.1080/21606544.2015.1100560. ISSN   2160-6544. S2CID   154707273.
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