Farrow, Scott Larson, Douglas M. Quantifying Passive Use Values From "Faint" Behavioral Trails: Television News Viewing and the Exxon Valdez Observable actions in response to decreases in environmental quality are identified for passive users, those who will never use a damaged resource directly. The welfare implication of changes in the probability and value of time devoted to viewing news of the Valdez oil spill is estimated using a household production approach and assuming weak substitutability between news consumption and environmental protection. The implied change in welfare from viewing the news, expected to be a large component of passive use value, ranges from $12 to 17 million 1989 dollars. The approach also provides a basis for a conditioning element in the study of other observable behavior and for more general application to the observable costs of major news events. Public Policy;Information Systems 1995-01-01
    https://kilthub.cmu.edu/articles/journal_contribution/Quantifying_Passive_Use_Values_From_Faint_Behavioral_Trails_Television_News_Viewing_and_the_Exxon_Valdez/6471863
10.1184/R1/6471863.v1