The value of information: ‘Methodological Frontiers and New Applications for Realizing Social Benefit’ workshop

This report highlights the major conclusions and outcomes from a workshop held 28–29 June 2010 at Resources for the Future in Washington, DC, on methodological frontiers and new applications of valuing information and its social benefit. The participants provided answers to a series of questions: what is meant by “value of information”? When does information have value? What are state-of-the-practice methods to ascribe value to information? Participants also identified steps to ascribe, measure, and communicate value. The workshop included identification of five discrete approaches at the frontier of methodological advances: price- and cost-based derivation; Bayesian belief networks; regulatory cost-effectiveness evaluation; econometric modeling and estimation; and simulation modeling and estimation.