Economic value of coastal environment improvement programs in aquaculture zones in South Korea
Abstract The present study attempted to estimate the value of the environmental improvement programs using a CVM model. The CVM model included economic variables, socio-demographic variables, and proxy variables measuring survey participants' familiarity with the coastal areas. We conducted an online survey during August 2018 with 3428 participants and received 1000 usable responses (final response rate of 29.1%). According to the survey, 73.2% of the households were willing to pay to support the environmental improvement programs in the aquaculture zones. The weighted average value of willingness to pay (WTP), taking into account the participation rate, was estimated at USD 9.05 per household; the aggregated WTP in 2019 was calculated at USD 182,049,800; a five-year net present value of the aggregate value of the improvement project was calculated at USD 837,411,929.