Multifaceted environmental values: selected concepts and their reflection in economic valuation methods and expressed preferences

Jury: 

• Sacha Bourgeois-Gironde (Directeur de thèse), Université Panthéon-Assas & University of Haifa
• Alda Mari (Directrice de thèse), CNRS
• Nele Lienhoop (Rapportrice), Hochschule Bochum
• Yves Meinard (Rapporteur), CNRS
• Sanna Stålhammar (Examinatrice), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
• Paul Egré (Examinateur), ENS

Abstract: 

In light of today’s far-reaching environmental crises, taking into account, acting on and transforming environmental values is a crucial leverage point for collective behaviour change. With this thesis, I contribute to the discourse on environmental values through an exemplary analysis of methods and methodological features of economic environmental valuation with regard to their capacity to contribute to value construction and expression of plural values. In particular, I show that i) economic environmental valuation methods based on stated preferences that try to account for value construction and value plurality employ very heterogeneous designs which are not always clearly associated with theoretical expectations regarding the elicited values, and ii) individual environmental valuation study features which have been conceptually associated with certain claims regarding their capacity to support value construction and/or to reflect value plurality can have measurable effects on elicited monetary values.