A Study on College Campus Cultural and Ecological Environment Value Based on Cvm —— Taking Huajiachi Campus As an Example
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The CRIOCM 2006 International Symposium on “Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate” A STUDY ON COLLEGE CAMPUS CULTURAL AND ECOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT VALUE BASED ON CVM —— TAKING HUAJIACHI CAMPUS AS AN EXAMPLE Shi Zhong WANG1, 2, Wei Dong LIU1 1. Land Resources Management Dep. Zhejiang University,Hangzhou,China 2. Research Center for Real Estate, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economy,Hangzhou,China Abstract: CVM,as a means of measuring and evaluating the value of environment, has been used more and more widely and commonly in foreign developed countries. But, in china, it is just a start and study cases by using CVM are very few. It is very common in our country’s college taking land exchange as a way to expand its size, and this must result in the loss of old campus cultural and ecological environment value. These are the most important part of a college. This paper, by using CVM and taking Huajiachi (one campus of Zhejiang University) as an example, tries to evaluate the economic value of campus cultural and ecological environment, and analyze its bias existing in the course of evaluation. Key words: college campus; contingent valuation method; willingness to pay; bias analysis 1 Introduction CVM, also called evaluation according to willingness to pay or evaluation by hypothesis, is lately the most widely used standard evaluating method on public property value especially in the domain of natural resources in zoology and environment economics in home and abroad. In the hypothesis of marketing condition, CVM obtains the usage and non-usage value of environment resources by deducing the public’s willingness to pay or willingness to accept compensation for environment resources [1]. Since doctor Davis of Harvard university submitted the first paper on CVM in 1963 [2], mainly represented by Hanemann, more than 2000 papers on CVM have been published in <<American Journal of Agricultural Economics>>, <<Land Economics>>, <<Ecological Economics>>, and so on [3]. CVM has been one of the main theoretic progresses in the domain of natural resources and environment economics in the later half of 20th century [4]. Scholars, mainly represented by Mitchell, think that willingness to pay is the only reasonable way to evaluate the value of all the commodities and utilities, and CVM just acquires people’s willingness to pay by conceiving an imaginary market. Lately, with the size of colleges becoming bigger and bigger, the growth rate of investment in higher education by our government in china is very slow, and it has been a common way for many colleges in our country to obtain development fund by land exchange of college campus. Along with the development of city, the old campus has become located in downtown, and its land price has been very high. By selling the old campus land and moving the college to outskirt, it can obtain a lot of development fund. It seems a good way for both the colleges and our government because it not only solves the shortage problem of college development fund but also eases the pressure of our government to invest in higher education. However, endowed with a pleasant climate, picturesque surroundings and a favorable academic atmosphere, the old college campus often has beautiful natural environment and deep cultural atmosphere accumulated by many years’ college development, and they have very high historical and ecological value. They are the most important part of a college, and sometimes we even call them the soul of a college. In the land exchange of college campus, this value loss to college is often very difficult to be measured by using ordinary marketing ways, and it is also a new study domain in current higher education research in china. So this paper tries to evaluate the cultural and ecological environment economic value of college campus by using CVM, the most popular method in foreign countries. 966 The CRIOCM 2006 International Symposium on “Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate” 2 Study Area and Method 2.1 General Situation of Study Area Huajiachi(Fig.1),one campus of Zhejiang University, which has a total area of 98.93 hectares,is located at the eastern part of Hangzhou downtown. Its history can go back early to 1934,and its first name is agriculture institute of Zhejiang University. After liberation,it was separated from Zhejiang University and named Zhejiang Agricultural Institute,then renamed Zhejiang Agricultural University. In 1998,it was reincorporated by Zhejiang University. As a campus which has a history of more than 70 years,there exist all kinds of old-timely buildings and old-tall trees. When you enter the campus, you will have a feeling that you have left the noisy city behind and entered the deep institution of higher learning. The most amazing scenery in the campus is Huajia pond which is called the small Westlake in Hangzhou. Huajia pond, which has an area of 5.60 hectares and an average water depth of 2 meters, has a long history and has existed from the beginning of Ming dynasty. There exists a small island in the center of the pond. In the island, there exists a red summerhouse and old green weather-beaten pine trees. Along the pond, there are all kinds of old beautiful willows. The scenery of Huajiachi is very rare even in all the campuses of Chinese colleges. After the amalgamation of four former individual universities, there are many problems such as too few opportunities of communication between teachers and students in different campuses, too big running costs for transportation between different campuses, in new Zhejiang University. These not only bring big problems and huge challenges on school’s management, but also are unfavorable to the integration of subjects in different campuses to their advantages. So, according to the agreements between the school and Hangzhou government, a new campus called Zijingang is constructed to replace the campuses which are not in agreement with the future layout of school. The school has to give up the Huajiachi campus because it is located in the eastern part of Hangzhou downtown and far away from the other campuses. Many people, including teachers, students and alumni feel regrettable for this. So, by using CVM, this paper tries to evaluate the economic value of cultural and ecological surroundings in Huajiachi campus. Fig.1 Location of Huajiachi in Hangzhou 967 The CRIOCM 2006 International Symposium on “Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate” 2.2 The Design of Investigation Based on CVM and Bias Control The preconditions of this investigation are as follows: There are two campuses called A and B in Zhejiang University. A is Huajiachi campus and B is the campus which is almost the same as Huajiachi in outer surroundings, location and hardware establishments mainly including laboratories, classrooms, libraries, canteens, dorms and swimming pools. However, in “B” campus, there is almost no historical and cultural atmosphere. It is like a big factory which has no scenery establishments such as pond, hill, big trees and pavilions. Now it is time for students、faculty logistic workers to choose freely. To students, if they want to study in “A” campus, they must pay extra money for the chance. To faculty and logistic workers, if they want to work in “A” campus, they must give up an extra allowance provided by the school. Inquiry paper is the key tool for CVM. This paper of inquiry consists of four parts: The first one is inquiry to consciousness of faculty、students and logistic workers. The second one is the willingness to pay for working and studying in “A” campus. The third one is inquiry to social and economic conditions of respondents. In the last part of the inquiry paper, contents suggested by scholars mainly represented by Arrow in 1993 are added. The contents are that in order to evaluate the effectiveness of inquiry, please ask the respondents to fill the degree of their understandings to the inquiry in the last part of the paper. In the second part of the paper, when asking the amount of willingness to pay, the way of answering freely is adopted, and no bounds of choice are provided. Generally speaking, the advantage of answering freely is that it can eradicate the bias of starting point and the one caused by respondents’ over-activity(Carlsson etc. 2000). If the respondents don’t want to pay, let them give the reasons. The inquiry paper is detailed in appendix1. 3 Results and Analysis 3.1 Results of Inquiry On November 14, 2005, pre-inquiry was taken, and on the basis of pre-inquiry, the inquiry paper and the way of inquisition were adjusted and improved. This inquiry was taken by sampling randomly in three ways of telephone 、network and talking directly. The bounds of inquiry was limited in Huajiachi and the respondents were teachers 、students and workers in logistics department. By the end of December 1, 2005, 252 eligible inquiry papers in total have been collected. There are 86.2 percent inquiry papers with the answer of willingness to pay, and there are the other 13.8 percent inquiry papers with the answer of unwillingness to pay. The inquiry results are detailed in the following tables 1、2、3 and 4. Tab.1 Statistical Table of Workers and Students’ Willingness to Pay Bounds of Numerical Value of Willingness to Pay Ratio of Effective Inquiry Papers in All ( Yuan/Year Per Capita ) ( % ) 0 13.80 0-250 3.28 251-550 26.45 551-850 37.52 851-1200 12.61 Over 1201 6.34 Tab.2 Percentage of Amount of Workers and Students’ Willingness to Pay in Their Yearly Family Income Percentage of WTP in Family Yearly Income(% ) Percentage of Effective Inquiry Papers in All( % ) 0 13.80 0-2 45.32 2-5 32.17 968 The CRIOCM 2006 International Symposium on “Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate” over 5 8.71 Tab.3 The Average Value of Workers and Students’ Willingness to Pay Willingness to Pay Average Value Standard Bias Median Mode Max.