The Revealed Demand For a Public Good: Evidence from Endangered and Threatened Species

This study examines the pattern of public expenditures on endangered and threatened species of animals in the United States. The examination explores how expenditure patterns are affected by biological and ecological information, policy directives, and public perception as measured in a national survey of attitudes towards preservation of individual species. The empirical conclusions of the paper include a set of revealed public values for a member of each endangered and threatened species. These values are compared and contrasted with values obtained from contingent valuation methodology.