Newcastle University

Roles and Responsibilities

Director: Centre for Research in Environmental Appraisal & Management
Editor: Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

Qualifications

BSc (Econ) (London)
PhD (Newcastle)

Research Interests

environmental economics; welfare economics; consumer demand theory and customer preferences; environmental valuation (production function, travel-cost, hedonic price, contingent valuation, and attribute based stated choice experiments to value 'public goods' and environmental externalities); cost-benefit analysis (CBA).

Other Expertise

Expertise in economic analysis of: water supply, water quality, and waste water disposal; forestry; agri-environmental schemes; public preferences in planning in relation to landfill site, quarries and opencast mines; cultural goods: public parks, museums, festivals, historic buildings, etc.

Postgraduate Teaching

Supervising PhD students

• Grisolia JM, Willis KG. An evening at the theatre: using choice experiments to model preferences for theatres and theatrical productions. Applied Economics 2011, 43(27), 3987-3998.
• Snowball JD, Jamal M, Willis KG. Cultural Consumption Patterns in South Africa: An Investigation of the Theory of Cultural Omnivores. Social Indicators Research 2010,97 3 467-483.
• Lanz B, Provins A, Bateman IJ, Scarpa R, Willis KG, Ozdemiroglu E. Investigating willingness to pay - willingness to accept asymmetry in choice experiments. In:Hess, S; and Daly, A, ed. Choice Modelling: the state-of-the-art and the state-of-practice.Bingley:Emerald Group Publishing ,2010, pp. 517-541.
• Willis KG. Is all sustainable development sustainable? A cost-benefit analysis of some procurement policies. Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management 2010,12 3 311-331.
• Willis KG, Crabtree B. Measuring Health Benefits of Green Space in Economic Terms. In:Nilsson, K; Sangster, M; Gallis, C; Hartig, T; de Vries, S; Seeland, K; Schipperijn, J, ed. Forests, Trees and Human Health .New York:Springer,2010, pp. 375-402.
• Snowball JD, Willis KG. Building cultural capital: Transforming the South African National Arts Festival. South African Journal of Economics 2006, 74(1), 20-33.
• Scarpa R, Willis KG. Distribution of willingness-to-pay for speed reduction with non-positive bidders: Is choice modelling consistent with contingent valuation?. Transport Reviews 2006, 26(4), 451-469.
• Willis KG, Scarpa R, Acutt M. Assessing water company customer preferences and willingness to pay for service improvements: A stated choice analysis. Water Resources Research 2005, 41(2), 1-11.
• Willis KG. Pricing public parks. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 2003,46 1 3-17.
• Willis KG. Iterative bid design in contingent valuation and the estimation of the revenue maximising price for a cultural good. Journal of Cultural Economics 2002,26 4 307-324.
• Scarpa R, Willis KG, Garrod GD. Estimating Benefits for Effective Enforcement of Speed Reduction from Dichotomous-Choice CV : The Case of Rural Trunk Roads. Environmental and Resource Economics 2001,20 4 281-304.
• Willis KG, Powe NA, Garrod GD. Estimating the value of improved street lighting: A factor analytical discrete choice approach. Urban Studies 2005, 42(12), 2289-2303.
• Powe NA, Willis KG, Garrod GD. Difficulties in valuing street light improvement: Trust, surprise and bound effects. Applied Economics 2006, 38(4), 371-381.
• Snowball JD, Willis KG. Estimating the marginal utility of different sections of an arts festival: The case of visitors to the South African National Arts Festival. Leisure Studies 2006, 25(1), 43-56.
• Powe NA, Willis KG. Mortality and morbidity benefits of air pollution (SO₂ and PM₁₀) absorption attributable to woodland in Britain. Journal of Environmental Management 2004, 70(2), 119-128.
• Garrod GD, Willis KG. Northumbria: castles, cathedrals and towns. In:Navrud, S, and Ready, RC, ed. Valuing Cultural Heritage: applying environmental valuation techniques to historic buildings, monuments and artifacts.Cheltenham:Edward Elgar,2002, pp. 40-52.
• Strazzera E, Scarpa R, Calia P, Garrod GD, Willis KG. Modelling zero values and protest responses in contingent valuation surveys. Applied Economics 2003,35 2 133-138.
• Florax RJGM, Nijkamp P, Willis KG, ed. Comparative Environmental Economic Assessment. Cheltenham:Edward Elgar,2002.
• Riganti P, Willis KG. Component and temporal value reliability in cultural goods: the case of Roman Imperial remains near Naples. In:Navrud, S, and Ready, RC, ed. Valuing Cultural Heritage: applying environmental valuation techniques to historic buildings, monuments and artifacts.Cheltenham:Edward Elgar,2002, pp. 142-158.
• Garrod GD, Scarpa R, Willis KG. Estimating the Benefits of Traffic Calming on Through Routes: A Choice Experiment Approach. Journal of Transport Economics and Policy 2002,36 2 211-231.
• Brunsdon C, Willis KG. Meta-analysis: a Bayesian perspective. In:Florax, RJGM, Nijkamp, P, and Willis, KG, ed. Comparative Environmental Economic Assessment.Cheltenham:Edward Elgar,2002, pp. 208-234.
• Willis KG. Stated preference and the estimation of environmental values. International Journal of Environmental Studies 2002,59 6 635-646.
• Willis KG, McMahon PL, Garrod GD, Powe NA. Water companies' service performance and environmental trade-offs. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 2002,45 3 363-379.
• Willis KG, Garrod GD. Energy Efficiency: economic constraints to environmental quality. International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management 2001,1 3 334-337.
• Garrod GD, Willis KG. Estimating lost amenity due to landfill waste disposal. In:Turner, RK, Bateman, IJ, and Powell, J, ed. Waste Management and Planning.Cheltenham:Edward Elgar,2001.
• Willis KG, Snowball JD, Wymer C, Grisolia J. A count data travel cost model of theatre demand using aggregate theatre booking data. Journal of Cultural Economics 2012, 36(2), 91-122.
• Grisolia JM, Willis KG. A latent class model of theatre demand. Journal of Cultural Economics 2012, 36(2), 113-139.
• Garrod GD, Ruto E, Willis KG, Powe NA. Heterogeneity of preferences for the benefits of Environmental Stewardship: A latent-class approach. Ecological Economics 2012, 76, 104-111.
• Grisolia JM, Willis K. Heterogeneity in willingness-to-pay for theatre productions: Individual specific willingness-to-pay estimates for theatres, shows and their attributes. Scottish Journal of Political Economy 2011, 58(3), 378-395.
• Snowball JD, Willis KG. Interview versus self-completion questionnaires in discrete choice experiments. Applied Economics Letters 2011, iFirst.
• Willis K, Scarpa R, Gilroy R, Hamza N. Renewable energy adoption in an ageing population: Heterogeneity in preferences for micro-generation technology adoption. Energy Policy 2011, 39(10), 6021-6029.
• Garrod GD, Willis KG. Economic approaches to valuing the environmental costs and benefits of mineral and aggregate extraction. Minerals and Energy 2000, 15(4), 12-20.