Methods for assessing the benefits of meteorological services in Australia

A review of several methods for assessing the economic and social benefits of meteorological services provided in Australia is undertaken. Meteorological services discussed are the basic public weather service and several user‐pay specialised services produced by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology for firms in various sectors of the economy. The usefulness and limitations of the contingent valuation technique often used to estimate the economic value of public goods and services (such as the basic public weather service) are reviewed. Methods for valuing the economic benefits of user‐pay services discussed include the direct economic benefits derived from the use of meteorological services for producers and consumers based on the producer and consumer surplus concepts, simulation modelling incorporating economic optimisation based on the cost–loss ratio technique and cost function analysis to establish the effect of the quality of weather information on the operating costs of a business firm. The social or non‐economic benefits of meteorological services are also discussed, including the difficulty of placing monetary values on these benefits.