Following up and updating the previous work for the author (Remoundou and Koundouri, 2009), this paper reviews the most pertinent studies regarding DCE conducted for the market/non-market valuation of water resources and the environment. The paper uses two different literature surveys methods: (1) a narrative review and (2) an econometric meta-analysis, performed by designing a three-equation model estimated by a 3SLS routine. Three different equations considered three types of WTP elicited in the narrative review: WTP for the water as a utility; WTP for the water as an object of a policy project, and WTP of the water for the provision of ecosystem services, biodiversity, and environmental benefits. Results show that the literature has consolidated the DCE approach to water preferences as a policy instrument based on a well-recognized protocol, whose research variations and addenda are mostly focused on marginal refinement and diversification in application. Results from the econometric meta-analysis show an empirical regularity on the (homogeneously) preferred and most valued attribute types (water quality and recreation) and on the (maybe consequent) importance and consistency of DCE as a technical instrument to elicit preferences for natural resources, considering not only the difference in preferences and socio-economic variables but also the specificity of the context where valuation is applied.
Koundouri et al. (Fri,) studied this question.