Applied benefit transfer: An Australian and New Zealand policy perspective

Abstract

This chapter provides an introduction to and review of the use of benefit transfer approaches and data within Australasian policy making. The focus is on applications within the last two decades and the role of transfer methods within legal, policy, and institutional structures. While there has been substantial interest in benefit transfer, the number of practical applications remains limited in both Australia and New Zealand. The limited pool of primary valuation studies and challenges in value transfer has meant that to date, understanding about the validity and reliability of benefit transfer and the development of protocols to guide its use are still limited. Nonetheless, recent major policy issues and controversies such as conservation of the Great Barrier Reef and management of the water in the Murray-Darling Basin have led to an increase in applications of benefit transfer, and also to the potential for misuse. Included in this chapter is a discussion of the acceptance of benefit transfer approaches for various applications, the prevalence of benefit transfer, and the legal role of benefit transfer within Australasian policy analysis. The chapter will also highlight the potential for benefit transfer to make benefit-cost analysis more useful to policy makers and more easily evaluated within Australasian policy contexts. The need for more work to provide confidence around processes and results is assessed.