Economic Value of Building a Firefighter Training Academy for Urban Disaster Management in Seoul, South Korea

The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to build a new firefighter training academy (FTA) for urban disaster management. The Government needs information about its economic value to determine whether building a FTA is socially desirable. This paper aims to estimate the economic value of the FTA by applying a choice experiment (CE) method through a survey of firefighters who do on-site fire prevention activities in Seoul. The annual economic values of six training centers were estimated using the data from a total of 1658 firefighters who responded to the CE survey questionnaire, with a 1% statistical significance level. The economic value of the FTA amounts to KRW 10.04 billion (USD 8.80 million) annually. Given the 30-year operating period, the present value is KRW 129.86 billion, which can be seen as the economic benefit of building the FTA. The present value of the costs for the construction and operation of the FTA is KRW 54.66 billion (USD 48.30 million). As the benefits outweigh the costs, it can be concluded that it is socially profitable to build the FTA.