Economic benefits of meteorological services

AbstractThere is an increasing need for more rigorous and more broadly based determination of the economic value of meteorological services as an aid to decision‐making on the appropriate level of funding to be committed to their provision at the national level. This paper develops an overall framework for assessment of the economic value of meteorological services based on the recognition that most national meteorological infrastructure and services possess the non rival properties of public goods. Given this overall framework for determination of both total and marginal benefits, four main methodologies appropriate for use in valuation studies –market prices, normative or prescriptive decision‐making models, descriptive behavioural response studies and contingent valuation studies –are outlined and their strengths and limitations described. Notwithstanding the methodological limitations and the need for a much more comprehensive set of studies for the various application sectors, it is clear that the actual and potential benefits to individuals, firms, industry sectors and national economies from state‐of‐the‐art meteorological and related services are substantial and that, at this stage, they are inadequately recognised and insufficiently exploited in many countries. Copyright © 2002 Royal Meteorological Society.