The City of Buffalo plans to clean up an abandoned former industrial site in an urban Buffalo neighborhood. You have been asked to evaluate the benefits of the proposal.

1. In general, why is it difficult to quantify the benefits associated with policies/plans such as this one that impact environmental amenities?
2. What kind of benefits do you want to measure in this particular scenario? What type(s) of value(s) do these benefits involve? Of the benefits you have listed, which do you think would be the most important quantitatively?
3. Which of the revealed preference valuation methods covered in class would be best suited to measuring the benefits in this context?
4. Explain intuitively how the method you have selected measures the benefits you are trying to capture. What data are involved, and how do they provide information about these benefits?
5. Could you have used a stated preference method instead in this scenario? If so, would it have been preferable to do so instead of using a revealed preference method? Explain why or why not