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 10

WP(25/2026)519. Biodiversity-oriented forest management aligns with societal preferences across Europe

Authors: Giergiczny Marek, Jacobsen Jette Bredahl, Glenk Klaus, Meyerhoff Jürgen, Abildtrup Jens, Taye Fitalew Agimass, Budziński Wiktor, Czajkowski Mikołaj, Draus Borys, Faccioli Michela, Gajderowicz Tomasz, Getzner Michael, Hackbarth Tom X., Janiec Piotr, Lundhede Thomas, Mayer Marius, McVittie Alistair, Oh Rachel, Olschewski Roland, Pereira Henrique M., Quaas Martin, Socha Jarosław, Strange Niels, Ščasný Milan, Valasiuk Sviataslau, Wasiak Adam, Fernández Néstor
Forests across Europe are undergoing rapid transformation as biodiversity loss and climate change reshape priorities for forest management. Strategies that promote biodiverse and structurally complex forests are increasingly advocated to enhance ecol…

WP519. Biodiversity-oriented forest management aligns with societal preferences across Europe

Forests across Europe are undergoing rapid transformation as biodiversity loss and climate change reshape priorities for forest management. Strategies that promote biodiverse and structurally complex forests are increasingly advocated to enhance ecological resilience, yet they are often assumed to conflict with societal preferences, potentially limiting public support for conservation and restoration. We examined whether forest characteristics associated with biodiversity conservation and climate adaptation are consistently valued by society across Europe. We combined a visual discrete choice experiment involving 11,622 respondents from twelve European countries with a travel cost model to evaluate whether stated societal preferences were reflected in observed recreational behaviour. We then integrated harmonized preference estimates with continental forest inventory and remote-sensing data to map the spatial distribution of societal values associated with forest ecosystem condition. Across all countries, respondents consistently preferred forests characterized by taller canopies, greater tree-species richness, heterogeneous age structures, and more deadwood. These preferences closely aligned with observed visitation behaviour despite substantial differences in geography, accessibility, and recreational traditions. Spatial analyses further showed that forests with greater structural complexity consistently exhibited higher societal value. Our findings demonstrate that biodiversity-oriented forest management and societal values largely converge across Europe, suggesting that many interventions promoting ecological resilience can simultaneously strengthen public support for forest conservation and restoration, providing a stronger foundation for adaptive, multifunctional forest governance under global environmental change.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.33138/2957-0506.2026.25.519
Giergiczny Marek, Jacobsen Jette Bredahl, Glenk Klaus, Meyerhoff Jürgen, Abildtrup Jens, Taye Fitalew Agimass, Budziński Wiktor, Czajkowski Mikołaj, Draus Borys, Faccioli Michela, Gajderowicz Tomasz, Getzner Michael, Hackbarth Tom X., Janiec Piotr, Lundhede Thomas, Mayer Marius, McVittie Alistair, Oh Rachel, Olschewski Roland, Pereira Henrique M., Quaas Martin, Socha Jarosław, Strange Niels, Ščasný Milan, Valasiuk Sviataslau, Wasiak Adam, Fernández Néstor
biodiversity conservation forest management structural complexity forest recreation ecosystem services discrete choice experiment travel cost method

WP(6/2019)291. Drivers of farmers’ willingness to adopt extensive farming practices in a globally important bird area

Authors: Czajkowski Mikołaj, Zagórska Katarzyna, Letki Natalia, Tryjanowski Piotr, Wąs Adam
Agri-environmental schemes have become an integral tool of land use management policies in ecologically valuable river valleys, that are commonly recognized as very important bird habitats. When high adoption of extensive agricultural practices is no…

WP291. Drivers of farmers’ willingness to adopt extensive farming practices in a globally important bird area

Agri-environmental schemes have become an integral tool of land use management policies in ecologically valuable river valleys, that are commonly recognized as very important bird habitats. When high adoption of extensive agricultural practices is not only a political goal, but also a necessary condition for conservation of vulnerable ecosystems, understanding of farmers' preferences is utterly important. Therefore, we use the case of Biebrza Marshes – a wetland complex and one of the largest wildlife refuges in Europe, which is located in northeastern Poland – and employ stated preference methods to investigate farmers' preferences for adopting several agricultural practices, such as precision fertilization, crop diversification, catch crops, peatland protection, extensive use of meadows, and the reduction of livestock stocking density. Farmers' willingness to participate in selected practices is explained using farms' and farmers' characteristics, subjectively and objectively measured farmers' environmental knowledge, as well as by experimentally controlled information treatments about environmental benefits of agri-environmental contracts. The results provide new insights into the sources of farmers' preference heterogeneity and show how different motivations relate to participation in agri-environmental schemes. Based on the results and consultations with local stakeholders, we make recommendations for a more efficient design and targeting of land use management instruments, including future agri-environmental schemes.


Czajkowski Mikołaj, Zagórska Katarzyna, Letki Natalia, Tryjanowski Piotr, Wąs Adam
agri-environmental schemes farmers’ preferences choice experiments agrobiodiversity protection agri-environment payments for ecosystem services

WP(26/2016)217. Understanding the distribution of economic benefits from improving coastal and marine ecosystems

Authors: Pakalniete Kristine, Aigars Juris, Czajkowski Mikołaj, Strake Solvita, Zawojska Ewa, Hanley Nick
The ecological status of coastal and marine waterbodies world-wide is threatened by multiple stressors, including nutrient inputs from various sources and increasing occurrences of invasive alien species. These stressors impact the environmental qual…

WP217. Understanding the distribution of economic benefits from improving coastal and marine ecosystems

The ecological status of coastal and marine waterbodies world-wide is threatened by multiple stressors, including nutrient inputs from various sources and increasing occurrences of invasive alien species. These stressors impact the environmental quality of the Baltic Sea. Each Baltic Sea country contributes to the stressors and, at the same time, is affected by their negative impacts on water quality. Understanding who benefits from improvements in coastal and marine waters is key to assessing public support for policies aimed at achieving such changes. We propose a new approach to account for variability in benefits related to differences in socio-demographics of respondents, by using a structural model of discrete choice. Our method (1) provides a convenient way of incorporating a wide range of socio-demographics as explanatory variables in conditional multinomial logit models without the risk of collinearity, and (2) is more statistically efficient than the alternative, typically used approaches. The new technique is applied in a study which examines the preferences of Latvian citizens towards improvements of the coastal and marine environment quality that could help the Baltic Sea waters of Latvia reach Good Environmental Status as required by the European Union's Marine Strategy Framework Directive. Applying the discrete choice experiment method, we find that overall, Latvians are willing to pay for reducing losses of biodiversity, for improving water quality for recreation by reduced eutrophication, and for reducing new occurrences of invasive alien species. A significant group within the sample seems not to value environmental improvements in the Baltic Sea, and, thus, is unwilling to support costly measures for achieving such improvements. The structural model of discrete choice reveals substantial heterogeneity among Latvians towards changes in the quality of coastal and marine waters of Latvia.


Pakalniete Kristine, Aigars Juris, Czajkowski Mikołaj, Strake Solvita, Zawojska Ewa, Hanley Nick
good environmental status coastal and marine water quality biodiversity invasive alien species eutrophication discrete choice experiment observed preference heterogeneity socio-demographic characteristics hybrid choice model

WP(20/2015)168. Should we pay, and to whom, for biodiversity enhancement in private forests? An empirical study of attitudes towards payments for forest ecosystem services in Poland

Authors: Bartczak Anna, Metelska-Szaniawska Katarzyna
This paper investigates the possibility of forest policy changes in Poland. The main objective is to investigate whether, and to whom, the society would be willing to pay for providing biodiversity enhancement in private forests. The empirical eviden…

WP168. Should we pay, and to whom, for biodiversity enhancement in private forests? An empirical study of attitudes towards payments for forest ecosystem services in Poland

This paper investigates the possibility of forest policy changes in Poland. The main objective is to investigate whether, and to whom, the society would be willing to pay for providing biodiversity enhancement in private forests. The empirical evidence is derived from a stated preference survey conducted on the national level and analyzed using a multinomial logit model (MNL). Our findings show a rather strong potential for the implementation of payments for ecosystem services (PES) in private forests, even though historical and institutional conditions are not favorable. The results also indicate a significant role of environmental attitudes in viewing the national and local governments as those responsible for financing the implementation of changes in private forests. They allow to provide recommendations for planning authorities and decision-makers not only in Poland but also in the other Central and Eastern European countries, where payments for ecosystem services have no long tradition.


Bartczak Anna, Metelska-Szaniawska Katarzyna
biodiversity environmental attitudes forest policy payments for ecosystem services private forests

WP(19/2014)136. Buying spatially-coordinated ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation on forest land: an experiment on the role of auction format and communication.

Authors: Bartczak Anna, Krawczyk Michał, Hanley Nick, Stenger Anne
Procurement auctions are one of several policy tools available to incentivise the provision of ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation. Successful biodiversity conservation often requires a landscape-scale approach and the spatial coordinati…

WP136. Buying spatially-coordinated ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation on forest land: an experiment on the role of auction format and communication.

Procurement auctions are one of several policy tools available to incentivise the provision of ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation. Successful biodiversity conservation often requires a landscape-scale approach and the spatial coordination of participation, for example in the creation of wildlife corridors. In this paper, we use a laboratory experiment to explore two features of procurement auctions in a forest landscape?the pricing mechanism (uniform vs. discriminatory) and availability of communication (chat) between potential sellers. We modify the experimental design developed by Reeson et al. (2011) by introducing uncertainty (and hence heterogeneity) in the production value of forest sites as well as an automated, endogenous stopping rule. We find that discriminatory pricing yields to greater environmental benefits per government dollar spent, chiefly due to better coordination between owners of adjacent plots. Chat also facilitates such coordination but also seems to encourage collusion in sustaining high prices for the most environmentally attractive plots. These two effects offset each other, making chat neutral from the viewpoint of maximizing environmental effect per dollar spent.


Bartczak Anna, Krawczyk Michał, Hanley Nick, Stenger Anne
conservation auctions spatial coordination chat in experiments discriminatory and uniform auctions biodiversity conservation provision of ecosystem services

WP(5/2013)90. Providing Preference-Based Support for Forest Ecosystem Service Management in Poland

Authors: Czajkowski Mikołaj, Bartczak Anna, Giergiczny Marek, Stale Navrud, Żylicz Tomasz
The paper looks at people's preferences for the changes in selected ecosystem services resulting from new management strategies of forest areas in Poland. It applies a generalized multinomial logit (G-MNL) model to interpret the results of a disc…

WP90. Providing Preference-Based Support for Forest Ecosystem Service Management in Poland

The paper looks at people's preferences for the changes in selected ecosystem services resulting from new management strategies of forest areas in Poland. It applies a generalized multinomial logit (G-MNL) model to interpret the results of a discrete choice experiment (DCE) study administered to a representative sample of 1001 Poles. The questionnaire included three physical attributes, namely: protecting the most ecologically valuable forest ecosystems, reducing litter in forests, and improving recreation infrastructure. The selection of these attributes was motivated by extensive qualitative research of what indicators of biodiversity, nature protection and recreation possibilities people are the most sensitive to. The fourth attribute was monetary - additional cost of the new programs which would have to be financed out of increased taxes. The results allowed for a robust estimation of implicit prices of the choice attributes and calculating welfare measures of specific forest management scenarios. In addition, the study revealed interesting connections between respondents' current forest recreation patterns and the importance they place on different attributes of forests. The results make it possible to utilize respondents' preference heterogeneity, to a large extent determined by their current recreational use patterns, in designing future forest management strategies.


Czajkowski Mikołaj, Bartczak Anna, Giergiczny Marek, Stale Navrud, Żylicz Tomasz
Biodiversity forest recreation discrete choice modeling generalized multinomial logit model

WP(8/2012)74. Learning and Fatigue Effects Revisited. The Impact of Accounting for Unobservable Preference and Scale Heterogeneity on Perceived Ordering Effects in Multiple Choice Task Discrete Choice Experiments

Authors: Czajkowski Mikołaj, Giergiczny Marek, Greene William H.
Using multiple choice tasks per respondent in discrete choice experiment studies increase the amount of available information. However, treating repeated choice data in the same way as cross-sectional data may lead to biased estimates. In particular,…

WP74. Learning and Fatigue Effects Revisited. The Impact of Accounting for Unobservable Preference and Scale Heterogeneity on Perceived Ordering Effects in Multiple Choice Task Discrete Choice Experiments

Using multiple choice tasks per respondent in discrete choice experiment studies increase the amount of available information. However, treating repeated choice data in the same way as cross-sectional data may lead to biased estimates. In particular, respondents' learning and fatigue may lead to changes in observed utility function preference (taste) parameters, as well as its error term variance (scale). Substantial body of empirical research offers mixed evidence in terms of whether (and which) of these ordering effects are observed. In this study we point to a significant component in explaining these differences - we show how accounting for unobservable preference and scale heterogeneity can influence the magnitude of observed ordering effects, especially if combined with too few choice tasks used for the analysis. We do this by utilizing the state-of-the-art modeling methods (H-MNL, S-MNL, H-RPL, G-MNL) which we modify to accommodate choice task specific scale parameter. In addition, we investigate possible bias resulting from not accounting for ordering effects. Our empirical study was based in the context of environmental protection - management changes in the protection of Polish forests.


Czajkowski Mikołaj, Giergiczny Marek, Greene William H.
ordering effects learning fatigue preference and scale heterogeneity forest management recreation biodiversity

WP(9/2010)32. Nature protection in an economically depressed region

Authors: Giergiczny Marek, Valasiuk Sviataslau, Żylicz Tomasz
We look at perspectives of nature protection in a wetland of international importance in South-Western part of Belarus. The region is economically depressed, which may prove to be a factor in local conservation initiatives. A theoretical model is dev…

WP32. Nature protection in an economically depressed region

We look at perspectives of nature protection in a wetland of international importance in South-Western part of Belarus. The region is economically depressed, which may prove to be a factor in local conservation initiatives. A theoretical model is developed to identify conditions for the local population to get involved in the fen mire conservation projects. The model is then verified by means of a choice experiment administered in villages neighbouring the site. The main outcome of the valuation experiments is to demonstrate that a carefully designed conservation programme is likely to enjoy the support of the local population who appreciates economic opportunities provided by saving the wetland.


Giergiczny Marek, Valasiuk Sviataslau, Żylicz Tomasz
wetlands biodiversity protection local development ecological tourism choice experiment (CE) random utility model (RUM)

WP(/2008)3. How to 'Sell' an Environmental Good: Using Labels to Investigate Scope Effects

Authors: Czajkowski Mikołaj, Hanley Nick
Insufficient sensitivity to scope remains one of the pivots of criticism addressed at validity of stated preference methods. Many studies demonstrate failure of a scope test of some sort, while many others show that WTP responses are sensitive to the…

WP3. How to 'Sell' an Environmental Good: Using Labels to Investigate Scope Effects

Insufficient sensitivity to scope remains one of the pivots of criticism addressed at validity of stated preference methods. Many studies demonstrate failure of a scope test of some sort, while many others show that WTP responses are sensitive to the scope of environmental change. Despite some existing explanations and reasons for insensitivity to scope (embedding, warm glow, uncertainty over supply of a public good, awareness of all options) there seems to exist no clear conclusion on how to deal with it. The paper provides an alternative explanation for insufficient sensitivity to scope, based on redefinition of value drivers of environmental goods. In the proposed framework respondents' WTP need not depend only on physical characteristics of a valued good but may also partly be a function of a 'label' under which the environmental good is 'sold'. To investigate this problem and empirically test the hypothesis and its implications, a CE study in a biodiversity valuation setting is designed and conducted. The conceptual framework and empirical evidence provide an alternative explanation for problems with the insufficient sensitivity to scope observed in many studies. Finally, we set out some implications of the nature of labels as value drivers for the design of future valuation studies.


Czajkowski Mikołaj, Hanley Nick
scope test embedding warm glow label effect CE CVM biodiversity

WP(/2008)2. Valuing Changes in Forest Biodiversity

Authors: Czajkowski Mikołaj, Buszko-Briggs Małgorzata, Hanley Nick
The paper offers an innovative approach to valuation of biodiversity. Instead of the prevailing approach of using only one indicator of biodiversity (usually number of species) we provide evidence that it is possible to provide attributes describing …

WP2. Valuing Changes in Forest Biodiversity

The paper offers an innovative approach to valuation of biodiversity. Instead of the prevailing approach of using only one indicator of biodiversity (usually number of species) we provide evidence that it is possible to provide attributes describing complex characteristics of biodiversity based on sound ecological knowledge. We argue that our approach managed to value the multi-level changes in the biological diversity, by using the attributes which described structural, species and functional diversity at the same time. Our study shows that even complex indicators of multi-level biodiversity might be successfully communicated to respondents in a comprehensible and meaningful way. The empirical application of the method is provided based on a choice experiment study conducted in Białowieża Forest, Poland. The results underline the importance of using multi-level indicators and question the validity of only species-level indicators. Interestingly, the respondents appreciated passive protection regimes, resulting in preservation of natural ecological processes. In addition, the respondents seemed to be concerned about means, and not only about the results of protection programmes. Finally, some conclusions for future applications and policy making are drawn.


Czajkowski Mikołaj, Buszko-Briggs Małgorzata, Hanley Nick
biodiversity forests valuation choice experiment
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