Valuing the Environmental Benefits from GM Products Using an Experimental Procedure: Lessons From the United States and the Philippines

This thesis develops an experimental procedure to value the environmental benefits from two pre-production genetically modified (GM) products, MVR tomatoes and Bt eggplant. The procedure explicitly tells subjects the GM nature of the products, and frames the value as an actual donation to the scientific organization pursuing the product research. The procedure is tested in the United States and the Philippines. The tests suggest that United States students give significantly different values than Filipino farmers with Filipino farmers valuing the environmental benefits much higher than United States students. The tests also suggest that slight changes in procedures can significantly affect values. Subjects also use information learned during the experiment to form their valuations. For example, Filipino farmers significantly increase their values as the procedure progresses.