Valuing the attributes of remediation of maritime oil spills: An empirical case study in South Korea

In the event of a large-scale oil accident, the marine ecosystem takes a long time to recover, and the remediation of contaminated sea takes a great amount of time and money. In order for efficient use of resources in the remediation process amid fewer social controversies, it is necessary to assess the monetary value which people assign to an oil spill remediation. This article applies a choice experiment to quantitatively evaluate the value given by people on the attributes of the oil spill remediation. In order to reflect the preference heterogeneity of South Korean people, a Bayesian estimation of a mixed logit model is successfully applied. According to the results, South Korean people are willing to pay additional annual income tax in the amount of KRW 174.61 for 1% recovery of contaminated sea areas, KRW 193.73 for 1% recovery of contaminated coast distance, KRW 95.04 for 1% reduction of resident health risk, and KRW 22.74 for 1% recovery of marine ecosystem. The results provide meaningful implications for the maritime oil spill prevention measures and for what aspects of the post-accident remediation should focus on.