Commissioned report

What’s the use of non-use values – Non-Use Values and the Investment Statement

This report surveys literature on Total Economic Value (TEV) and the Non-use Value component to:

  • Assess definitions and terms used in the literature (Deliverable 1)
  • Outline various techniques used to measure non-use values (Deliverable 1)
  • Describe New Zealand estimates of non-use values (Deliverable 2)

Sections 1-4 of this report comprise Deliverable 1, and sections 5 and 6 cover Deliverable 2.

These assessments are made to consider the uses of TEV and NUV for the preparation of Investment Statements as required under the Public Finance Act. Investment Statements are intended to describe the state of the Crown’s assets and liabilities, and also to inform spending programmes for budgetary purposes. In the past such statements have not estimated values for environmental assets that contribute to New Zealand’s well-being. This raises a question of whether it is feasible to estimate TEV and NUV to rectify that omission and provide more complete value for environmental assets in programme assessments.

Authorship

This paper was prepared at NZIER by Peter Clough and Michael Bealing. It was quality approved by John Yeabsley. The assistance of Sarah Spring is gratefully acknowledged.