Who gets what in environmental policy?

This paper shows how anticipated impacts of environmental projects and policies can be valued in terms of money as a common denominator, and costs and benefits assigned in an acceptable distribution. To that effect, a new mechanism design of situational contracting is introduced that generates information on willingness and ability to pay or to cooperate, in a realization-focused capability approach to fairness. The situational contract reveals preferences and merit considerations of the relevant stakeholders and deals with market failure in a structured combination of political guidance, expert opinions and co-production. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.