Valuing the benefits of public libraries

Constraints on public budgets oblige libraries to document their value. This paper presents a contingent valuation study eliciting how a random sample of Norwegian citizens values public libraries, applying two recently developed elicitation approaches. Possible and actual protest bids are differentiated and a split sample used, eliciting both willingness to pay (WTP) and to accept (WTA). An overwhelming majority perceives they have property rights to a local library, justifying the application of WTA. Estimates of WTA among non-protesters are higher than estimates of WTP but only by a factor of about 4. Several measures of average valuation are derived, all being higher than average costs.