Benefit Transfer of Disamenities’ Values of Waste Transfer-Stations in Israel

Monetary estimates for disamenities related to waste transfer stations were measured in simultaneous hedonic pricing valuation surveys conducted in four different cities in Israel, in order to test the performance of the benefit transfer method. The sites were chosen to generate a mix of similar and dissimilar samples. All four sites were used both as policy and study sites. We applied the approach that involves transferring an estimated benefit function from a study site to a policy site, while data from the policy site is applied to the relationship. To test the sensitivity of function transfer to socio-economic and city characteristics, the method was performed on different groups of observations. The findings of the study suggest that many of the benefit functions are transferable. Transfers worked better in one direction than the other (transfer asymmetry) attributing it to differences in samples size to precision of estimates across studies. Transfer error rates varied between 2% to -46%. Error rates were smaller for transfer between relatively similar cities in terms of size and location, and between similar subsamples in the aspect of socioeconomic characteristics and housing type.