Working Papers

The WNE Working Papers series has been published by the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw since 2008.

The WNE Working Papers series provides a fast, open channel for disseminating research conducted at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw. The papers hosted here are working versions (pre-prints) and may evolve as authors refine their analyses, incorporate feedback, or progress through formal peer-review. What you read is the current version released by the authors, timestamped and assigned DOI/ISSN identifiers to ensure precise citation and version tracking. Copyright remains with the authors, who may, at any time, upload a revised file or add a note directing readers to a later, peer-reviewed publication.

The Working Papers series accepts articles by research employees of the Faculty and publications from conferences organised at the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw. Articles should be original research papers which have not been previously published, on the subject of economics.

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Number of Results 5

WP(22/2026)516. When Risk Information Changes the Trip: Evidence from a Randomized Panel Combining Discrete Choice and Travel Cost Methods

Authors: Czajkowski Mikołaj, Zawadzki Wojciech, Skrzypek Katarzyna, Budziński Wiktor, Ščasnŷ Milan
Coastal bathing delivers large welfare benefits but exposes recreationists to low-probability, high-salience microbial risks that are likely to become more frequent under climate change. Because these risks are largely invisible, behaviour and welfar…

WP516. When Risk Information Changes the Trip: Evidence from a Randomized Panel Combining Discrete Choice and Travel Cost Methods

Coastal bathing delivers large welfare benefits but exposes recreationists to low-probability, high-salience microbial risks that are likely to become more frequent under climate change. Because these risks are largely invisible, behaviour and welfare depend on beliefs and the effectiveness of risk communication. We provide causal evidence on how pathogen-risk information affects preferences and recreation demand using a three-wave panel survey of users of the Gulf of Gdańsk and the Vistula Lagoon (Poland). A stratified national sample identified 3,312 active coastal users in Wave 1 (spring 2024); 2,588 respondents returned in Wave 2 (summer 2024), where they were randomly assigned to receive either minimal information or increasingly detailed pathogen-risk scripts, and then completed a repeated beach-site discrete choice experiment. Approximately one year later (spring 2025), 1,507 users completed a policy-referendum discrete choice experiment on programs combining water-quality improvements, monitoring frequency, and household costs, alongside a repeated travel-cost module capturing multi-day trips and beach outings. Information treatments significantly increased objective and self-assessed knowledge and selectively raised willingness to travel/pay for risk-relevant attributes – especially frequent water-quality monitoring and water-quality improvements – while leaving unrelated attributes largely unchanged. Travel-cost models indicate that information affects trip-taking behaviour, yet the marginal travel-cost sensitivity remains stable, consistent with a demand shift rather than a change in the “price” slope. The results imply that welfare estimates are information-dependent and that credible risk communication can function as a scalable, low-cost complement to traditional coastal health-risk management.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.33138/2957-0506.2026.22.516
Czajkowski Mikołaj, Zawadzki Wojciech, Skrzypek Katarzyna, Budziński Wiktor, Ščasnŷ Milan
Bathing water quality Pathogens Microbial contamination Risk communication Information treatments Discrete choice experiment (DCE) Travel cost method (TCM) Recreation demand Welfare measurement Consumer surplus Climate adaptation Coastal health risks Baltic Sea Poland

WP(15/2021)363. Re-meander, rewet, rewild! Overwhelming public support for restoration of small rivers in the three Baltic Sea basin countries

Authors: Giergiczny Marek, Valasiuk Sviataslau, Kotowski Wiktor, Galera Halina, Jacobsen Jette Bredahl, Sagebiel Julian, Wichtmann Wendelin, Jabłońska Ewa
Baltic Sea belongs to World's most oxygen-depletes seas, so the region requires urgent mitigation measures to significantly reduce nitrogen and phosphorus inputs from land through rivers, which cannot be achieved without large-scale restoration o…

WP363. Re-meander, rewet, rewild! Overwhelming public support for restoration of small rivers in the three Baltic Sea basin countries

Baltic Sea belongs to World's most oxygen-depletes seas, so the region requires urgent mitigation measures to significantly reduce nitrogen and phosphorus inputs from land through rivers, which cannot be achieved without large-scale restoration of wetland buffer zones. The manuscript summarises the findings of the discrete choice experiment aimed at assessment of the preferences of Danish, German, and Polish citizens towards ecosystem services of lowland small rivers of the Baltic Sea basin. Our results suggest that respondents in all the studied countries are willing to pay substantial amounts to improve water quality in rivers and the Baltic Sea, as well as to restore naturally meandering rivers and natural riparian vegetation. Wild marshes and Wetland agriculture were equally valued as the most desirable options. Respondents systematically cared about the appearance of small rivers in their neighbourhood. We conclude that re-meandering, re-wetting of floodplains, and restoration of wild marshes or development of wetland agriculture could gain a lot of public support in Europe.


Giergiczny Marek, Valasiuk Sviataslau, Kotowski Wiktor, Galera Halina, Jacobsen Jette Bredahl, Sagebiel Julian, Wichtmann Wendelin, Jabłońska Ewa
Baltic Sea discrete choice experiment ecosystem services restoration small rivers willingness to pay

WP(2/2020)308. Increasing the cost-effectiveness of water quality improvements through pollution abatement target-setting at different spatial scales

Authors: Czajkowski Mikołaj, Andersen Hans E., Blicher-Mathiasen Gite, Budziński Wiktor, Elofsson Katarina, Hagemejer Jan, Hasler Berit, Humborg Christoph, Smart James C. R., Smedberg Erik, Stålnacke Per, Thodsen Hans, Wąs Adam, Wilamowski Maciej, Żylicz Tomasz, Hanley Nick
In this paper, we investigate the potential gains in cost-effectiveness from changing the spatial scale at which nutrient reduction targets are set for the Baltic Sea, focusing on nutrient loadings associated with agriculture. Costs of achieving load…

WP308. Increasing the cost-effectiveness of water quality improvements through pollution abatement target-setting at different spatial scales

In this paper, we investigate the potential gains in cost-effectiveness from changing the spatial scale at which nutrient reduction targets are set for the Baltic Sea, focusing on nutrient loadings associated with agriculture. Costs of achieving loadings reductions are compared across five levels of spatial scale, namely the entire Baltic Sea; the marine basin level; the country level; the watershed level; and the grid square level. A novel highly disaggregated model, which represents decreases in agricultural profits, changes in root zone N concentrations and transport to the Baltic Sea is proposed, and is then used to estimate the gains in cost-effectiveness from changing the spatial scale of nutrient reduction targets. The model includes 14 Baltic Sea marine basins, 14 countries, 117 watersheds and 19,023 10-by-10 km grid squares. A range of policy options are identified which approach the cost-effective reductions in N loadings identified by the constrained optimization model. We argue that our results have important implications for both domestic and international policy design for achieving water quality improvements where non-point pollution is a key stressor of water quality.


Czajkowski Mikołaj, Andersen Hans E., Blicher-Mathiasen Gite, Budziński Wiktor, Elofsson Katarina, Hagemejer Jan, Hasler Berit, Humborg Christoph, Smart James C. R., Smedberg Erik, Stålnacke Per, Thodsen Hans, Wąs Adam, Wilamowski Maciej, Żylicz Tomasz, Hanley Nick
cost-effectiveness nutrient pollution agricultural run-off Baltic Sea eutrophication

WP(11/2018)270. Recreational Value of the Baltic Sea: a Spatially Explicit Site Choice Model Accounting for Environmental Conditions

Authors: Czajkowski Mikołaj, Zandersen Marianne, Aslam Uzma, Angelidis Ioannis, Becker Thomas, Budziński Wiktor, Zagórska Katarzyna
The Baltic Sea plays a significant role for recreational use in the nine littoral countries with more than 70% of the population visiting the coast, representing some 80 million recreation visits annually. Understanding the values associated with coa…

WP270. Recreational Value of the Baltic Sea: a Spatially Explicit Site Choice Model Accounting for Environmental Conditions

The Baltic Sea plays a significant role for recreational use in the nine littoral countries with more than 70% of the population visiting the coast, representing some 80 million recreation visits annually. Understanding the values associated with coastal recreation and the potential welfare changes of improving the state of the Baltic Sea is important for managing the marine environment. We estimate a spatially explicit travel cost model of coastal site recreation to the Baltic Sea to assess the welfare of accessing individual sites, identify recreational hotspots and simulate the welfare changes resulting from improving environmental and infrastructure conditions. The total benefits associated with the Baltic Sea based recreation amount to 11.4 billion EUR per year with significant variation across sites. Improving water quality and infrastructure boost the recreational value by nearly 9 billion EUR, almost doubling the recreational benefits compared to current conditions.


DOI: http://doi.org.10.26405/WP/WNE/2018/270/011
Czajkowski Mikołaj, Zandersen Marianne, Aslam Uzma, Angelidis Ioannis, Becker Thomas, Budziński Wiktor, Zagórska Katarzyna
Recreational benefits Site choice Random Utility Model Baltic Sea Blue Flag

WP(7/2015)155. Is the income elasticity of the willingness to pay for pollution control constant?

Authors: Barbier Edward S., Czajkowski Mikołaj, Hanley Nick
This paper explores both theoretically and empirically whether or not the willingness to pay (WTP) for pollution control varies with income. Our model indicates that the income elasticity of the marginal WTP for pollution reduction is only constant u…

WP155. Is the income elasticity of the willingness to pay for pollution control constant?

This paper explores both theoretically and empirically whether or not the willingness to pay (WTP) for pollution control varies with income. Our model indicates that the income elasticity of the marginal WTP for pollution reduction is only constant under very restrictive conditions, which are not necessary for an environmental Kuznets curve relationship between pollution and income. Our empirical analysis tests the null hypothesis that the elasticity of the WTP for pollution control with respect to income is constant, employing a multi-country contingent valuation study of eutrophication reduction in the Baltic Sea. Our findings reject this hypothesis, and estimate an income elasticity of the WTP for eutrophication control of 0.1 - 0.2 for low-income respondents and 0.6 - 0.7 for high-income respondents. Thus, our empirical results suggest that the elasticity is not constant and always less than one.


Barbier Edward S., Czajkowski Mikołaj, Hanley Nick
Baltic Sea benefit transfer environmental Kuznets curve eutrophication income elasticity of willingness to pay non-market valuation
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