The value of the services provided by environmental quality improvement projects are subject to large margins of error. These services are not sold in markets and have no established prices, and often have to be valued through stated preference surveys (i.e. contingent valuation). These uncertainties are necessarily transmitted into uncertainties about the net present value (NPV) of environment...

Diminishing marginal utility (DMU) is a basic tenet of economic and psychological models of judgment and choice, but its determinants are little understood. In the research reported here, we tested whether insensitivities in valuations of dollar amounts (e.g., $40, $100) may be due to inexact mappings of symbolic numbers (i.e., "40," "100") onto mental magnitudes. In three studies, we demonstra...

The Real Option Theory (OR) offers a modern methodology for the valuation of an investment project because it considers the value of managerial flexibility facing project uncertainties. The present work seeks to study the deferral option value for a polypropylene petrochemical plant investment project. Perhaps the most critical step of OR is the estimation of the project volatility. This work e...

T theory of real options offers an approach for the valuation of investments in real assets, based on the methodology developed for financial options. This approach is especially appropriate in the context of strategic decision making under conditions of uncertainty. This is the case for the valuation of highway concessions, where real options arise from certain clauses of the contracts, for ex...

Issues around water – its quality, use, availability and environmental value – can be a major point of tension between mineral projects and local communities. Failure to manage these issues appropriately can jeopardise the obtaining of regulatory approvals for new projects and place at risk the ‘social licence to operate’ of existing operations. Conversely, there may also be significant opportu...

This paper explores the idea that a proper valuing of natural environments is essential to (and not just a natural basis for) a broader human virtue that might be called ʻappreciation of the goodʼ. This kind of valuing can explain, without any commitment to a metaphysics of intrinsic values, how and why it is good to value certain natural phenomena for their own sakes. The objection that such a...

We describe an R&D project valuation model developed for Phytopharm plc, an emerging pharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, UK. The model allows the company to value the projects in its R&D portfolio, and is used for licensing negotiations with potential product development and marketing partners. It is based on different valuation methods, including Net Present Value, Decision Analysis and...