Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS: An Investigation of the Effect of Public Deliberation on Environmental Preferences

本论文的研究将检验生态经济学领域中普遍存在的一个假设，即人们在参与结构化的群体审议后，做出更具利他动机的环境决策。由于该领域缺乏明确的研究成果，目前的环境评价研究尚处于初级阶段，尚无定论。如果小组讨论被证明以更好地反映社会利益的方式影响个人的环境价值观，那么使用调查方法为有关环境和其他非市场产品的政策决策提供意见的经济学和其他社会科学研究人员将很好地建议将讨论作为调查过程的一部分。该项目将使用当前一个关键的环境问题作为研究的案例--是否允许在阿拉斯加北极国家野生动物保护区的沿海平原开发石油。它将涉及随机选择控制和处理小组，在这些小组中，将在完成旨在引起参与者对石油开发或荒野指定的偏好的调查之前，讨论沿海平原开发的广泛成本和好处。这项工作包括前往阿拉斯加的安克雷奇和偏远的灌木丛村庄，制作一盘采访政府、行业和环境发言人以及阿拉斯加土著群体的录像带，如果沿海平原向石油开发开放，他们将受到最直接的影响。这段视频将被用来向纽约的小组参与者提供背景信息，调查工作在纽约计划进行，用于教学和社区宣传，并向公共电视台提供。研究结果将在专业期刊上传播，并为民选官员和其他感兴趣的各方总结。

The dissertation research will test an assumption pervasive in the field of Ecological Economics that people make more altruistically-motivated environmental decisions after participating in structured, group deliberation. The deliberative environmental valuation research is still preliminary and inconclusive due to a lack of definitive research results in this area. If group discussion is shown to affect individuals' environmental values in ways that better reflect the social good, then economic and other social science researchers using the survey method to provide input to policy decisions about the environment and other non-market goods would be well-advised to include discussion as part of the survey process. The project will use a current, critical environmental issue as a case study for the research--whether to allow oil development in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska. It will involve the random selection of control and treatment groups in which a broad range of costs and benefits of coastal plain development will be discussed prior to the completion of a survey intended to elicit participants' preferences for oil development or wilderness designation. The work involves travel to Anchorage and re mote bush villages in Alaska to produce a videotape of interviews with governmental, industry and environmental spokespersons, and indigenous Alaska Native groups who will be most directly affected if the coastal plain is opened to oil development. The video will be used to provide background information to the group participants in New York, where the survey work is planned, used for teaching and community outreach, and made available to public television. The research results will be disseminated in professional journals and summarized for elected officials and other interested parties.