Fraught with Controversy

Organizing Expertise against Contingent Valuation

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4298167
AutoresH Maas (0000-0002-5094-0477), Andrej Svorenčík (0000-0002-5716-946X)
Año2017
Volumen49
Número2
Páginas315-345
Fecha de publicación2017-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHistory of Political Economy (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0018-2702 • E-ISSN: 1527-1919
EditorialDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00182702-3876493
OpenAlexW2622332277
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas20

This paper examines consulting and expert work performed by (experimental) economists for the Exxon Valdez litigation case. One of the issues at stake was the use of a specific method, contingent valuation, to estimate the so-called passive use value part of the damage resulting from the Exxon Valdez oil spill of March 24, 1989. Our interest is less in the possibilities of using contingent valuation to estimate passive use values as such, and more in the dynamics of consulting and expert work itself, which in litigation cases mostly remains hidden behind the veil of contracts. Because Exxon went explicitly public in the Exxon Valdez case, this veil can be partially lifted. In contrast with Public Trustees, who submitted a monetary damage estimate to the Court, Exxon decided to follow a radically different strategy: it organized an all-out assault on the method by which such a monetary estimate was most likely to be produced. That strategy cut across social and epistemic commitments of different segments of the economics discipline, raising questions about the different meanings of expertise, and the role of economists in the legal, business, and public domain. This paper aims to address these questions

Actuarial science · Contingent valuation · Economics · Law and economics · Microeconomics · Oil spill · Sociology · Valuation (finance · Value (mathematics · Willingness to pay · Computer Science · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics · Economic and Environmental Valuation · Engineering · Finance · Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems