Willingness to pay for environmental goods in Norway: A contingent valuation study with real payment

The study seeks to determine the maximum willingness to pay (MWTP) among a random sample of Norwegians, for membership in the largest environmentalist association in Norway, Norges Naturvernforbund (NNV). The study includes three stages: (1) a contingent valuation study, testing hypothetical MWTP; (2) those whose stated MWTP is at or above the current membership fee are then asked to pay this fee; (3) those individuals who do not pay in stage 2 are interviewed, and asked to consider revising their MWTP statement. The study is seemingly the first of its kind in comparing hypothetical and actual MWTP by typing valuation of a public good (the environment) to the value of a private good (membership of the NNV). The results show a rather poor correspondence between hypothetical and actual MWTP, since only 6 out of 64 who stated that they were willing to pay the membership fee in stage 1, actually paid this voluntarily in stage 2. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed, on the basis of data from the telephone interview in stage 3, and on information gathered in stage 1. The data indicate that a substantial part of this discrepancy is due to MWTP being overstated in stage 1, but that other reasons also are important.     

The internalization of externalities in the production of electricity: Willingness to pay for the attributes of a policy for renewable energy

This paper investigates the willingness to pay of a sample of residents of Bath, England, for a hypothetical program that promotes the production of renewable energy. Using choice experiments, we assess the preferences of respondents for a policy for the promotion of renewable energy that: (i) contributes to the internalization of the external costs caused by fossil fuel technologies; (ii) affects the short-term security of energy supply; (iii) has an impact on the employment in the energy sector; and (iv) leads to an increase in the electricity bill. Responses to the choice questions show that our respondents are in favour of a policy for renewable energy and that they attach a high value to a policy that brings private and public benefits in terms of climate change and energy security benefits. Our results therefore suggest that consumers are willing to pay a higher price for electricity in order to internalize the external costs in terms of energy security, climate change and air pollution caused by the production of electricity.     

Proportionality of Willingness to Pay to Small Changes in Risk: The Impact of Attitudinal Factors in Scope Tests

Sensitivity (proportionality) of willingness to pay (WTP) to (small) risk changes is often used as a criterion to test for valid measures of economic preferences. In a contingent valuation (CV) study conducted in Austria, 1,005 respondents were asked their WTP for preventing an increase in the risk of being killed in an avalanche of 1/42,500 and 3/42,500 respectively. WTP for the higher variation in risk is significantly greater than WTP for the lower risk change. We find evidence that those respondents who have had personal experience of avalanches in recent years combine the information about future risk increase—as provided in the survey—with the observed number of fatal avalanche accidents in the past. Proportionality of WTP holds if such prior experience is taken into account and if attitudinal factors in scope tests are controlled for. This research was funded by alpS GmbH—Center for Natural Hazard Management, Innsbruck, Austria.     

Valuing climate protection through willingness to pay for biomass ethanol

This study uses a multi-part, split-sample contingent valuation method (CVM) and fair share (FS) survey to better understand the public's valuation of mitigating global climate change through its willingness to pay for biomass or “cellulosic” ethanol. In addition to a basic CVM question, a related scenario was developed that asked half of the survey respondents to state their fair share cost to lessen a potential food shortage in the next decade, also through the expanded use of cellulosic ethanol. Three alternative biomass feedstocks were assessed: farming residues, forestry residues and paper mill wastes, and municipal solid wastes. Overall a slightly larger proportion of respondents were WTP extra for cellulosic ethanol in the basic CVM scenario than in the FS scenario, though no significant differences were found in the WTP for the different feedstocks. Bid curve lognormal regression results for the two models were similar, supporting the idea that asking a FS rather than a conventional WTP question may be justifiable in some circumstances, such as in cases of a national emergency.     

The effect of distance on willingness to pay values: a case study of wetlands and salmon in California

Most contingent valuation studies in the literature utilized a pre-determined geographic market area for their sample frame. In other words, they did not include variables that would measure the extent of the geographic areas over which to aggregate willingness to pay. These studies implicitly assumed that the effects of geographic distance were moot; an assumption that could have led to an understatement of the aggregate benefit values computed in these studies. The overall goal of this study was to determine if distance affects willingness to pay for public goods with large non-use values. The data used came from a contingent valuation study regarding the San Joaquin Valley, CA. Respondents were asked about their willingness to pay (WTP) for three proposed programs designed to reduce various environmental problems in the Valley. A logit model was used to examine the effects of geographic distance on respondents' willingness to pay for each of the three programs. Results indicate that distance affected WTP for two of the three programs (wetlands habitat and wildlife, and the wildlife contamination control programs). We calculate the underestimate in benefits if the geographic extent of the public good market is arbitrarily limited to one political jurisdiction.     

Eliciting Willingness to Pay without Bias using Follow-up Certainty Statements: Comparisons between Probably/Definitely and a 10-point Certainty Scale

Correction for hypothetical bias using follow up certainty questions often takes one of two forms: (1) two options, “definitely sure” and “probably sure”, or (2) a 10-point scale with 10 very certain. While both have been successful in eliminating hypothetical bias from estimates of WTP by calibrating based on the certainty of yes responses, little is known about the relationship between the two. The purpose of this paper is to compare the two using data from three field experiments in a private good, dichotomous choice format. We compare four types of yes responses that differ in the criterion used to determine if there is sufficient certainty for a hypothetical yes response to be considered a true yes response. We make several comparisons, but focus on determining which values on the 10-point scale give the same estimates of WTP as “definitely sure” hypothetical yeses and real yeses (actual purchases). Values that produce equivalence are near 10 on the certainty scale.     

Endogenous private safety investment and the willingness to pay for mortality risk reductions

When individuals cannot undertake safety-improving expenditures, the effect of an increase in the initial risk on the willingness to pay (WTP) for mortality risk reduction is positive because of the dead-anyway effect. When they can undertake safety-improving expenditures, the effect of an increase in the initial risk is governed by two effects: The dead-anyway effect which is positive and the high-payment effect which is negative. We treat the two types of risk-reducing expenditures, endogenous and exogenous, as inputs in a safety-improving technology function and find conditions that guarantee that the high-payment effect dominates.     

Conjoint and WTP analyses of future mobile phones for digital convergence

Digital convergence for mobile phones is a hot issue. This study considers future development of mobile phones with a view toward consumers' usage and the amount they are willing to pay. In order to select preferable convergence technology, we utilize convergence concepts such as absorption, blending, and combination. The result of conjoint analysis shows that a preference for convergence technology will involve computing, media, navigation, and imaging. However, only the computing attribute increases consumers' willingness to pay. Our study results contribute to product planning and commercialization of innovative mobile phones.     

On the willingness to pay to reduce risks of small losses

While willingness to pay is a common concept to measure the benefit gained from a reduction in the probability of loss, it is still questionable how it is linked to risk aversion and risk elimination behaviors, and how it is affected by the presence of an exogenous source of risk. By focusing only on risks of small losses, this article sheds light on these three issues and provides new results on the determinants of the willingness to pay.      

Semi-parametric discrete choice measures of willingness to pay

A semi-parametric discrete choice method is proposed to recover welfare measures from individual choice data. The proposed method is compared with the traditional binary choice models in an application to measure benefits of recreation trips.     

Popular Support for Climate Change Mitigation: Evidence from a General Population Mail Survey

Using a sample of 1,651 US households, we explore some determinants of willingness to pay (WTP) for climate change mitigation programs. Our mail survey had a relatively low response rate, so we first use several additional data sources to build a detailed sample selection model. This model uses features of the survey instrument, measures of geographic vulnerability to climate change, seasonality, the political mix in the county, attributes of the address or addressee, and a set of factor scores from an extensive factor analysis of all census tracts in the US. We estimate this model jointly with a model to explain climate policy preferences as a function of the domestic and international distribution of policy costs as well as the climate change impacts that each respondent believes will occur under a policy of business-as-usual. Despite statistically significant patterns of nonresponse, selectivity effects are minimal in this case. WTP for climate change mitigation is greater when the domestic incidence of mitigation costs is borne mostly through higher energy taxes. It is also greater when costs are understood to be shared internationally with other groups of countries, rather than being borne mostly by a country group including the US. People are generally more willing to pay for climate change mitigation if they believe that the harm caused by climate change impacts will be substantial, rather than just moderate. The assistance of former UCLA undergraduate students Ivka Adam, Tashi Ghale, Michelle Gogolewski, Vilija Gulbinas, and Lindy Olsson was essential to survey development and administration. This paper is based upon work supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 9818875 to UCLA, with additional support from the Raymond F. Mikesell Foundation at the University of Oregon. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of either the National Science Foundation or ICF International.     

Addressing Negative Willingness to Pay in Dichotomous Choice Contingent Valuation

This paper has four purposes. First, we outline the controversy surroundingthe issue of negative willingness to pay (WTP)in contingent valuation (CV) studies. Second,we use Monte Carlo simulation to examine theperformance of alternative distributionalassumptions in estimating WTP in the presenceof varying proportions of the populationholding negative WTP values. We focus ondichotomous choice CV (DC-CV), where negativeWTP values may be especially difficult todetect. Third, we extend the simulation toinvestigate the performance of the mixturemodels that have recently been proposed forhandling/identifying non-positive WTP values. Fourth, we extend the simulation to investigatethe performance of the nonparametric lowerbound Turnbull approach. Results indicate thatthe relative performance of the DC-CV modelingalternatives evaluated here, which assumepositive WTP, varies across the simulationsetting (e.g., proportion of negative WTP); butnone can be said to reasonably ``solve' theproblem ex post. This underscores theimportance of ex ante efforts to identify ifnegative WTP is likely to be prominent in agiven valuation setting. In such cases,appropriately handling negative WTP must beaddressed through ex ante survey design andmodeling choices that allow negative WTP.     

An estimation of the future demand for portable Internet service in Korea

Portable Internet service (PIS), which refers to wireless Internet service that can be accessed via a portable terminal at every time and at any place, is scheduled to be launched in Korea in early 2006. Thus, both the government and the industry need to obtain quantitative information on the future demand for the service. This study attempts to estimate future demand for the PIS, to analyze the determinants of the demand, and to conduct pre-test-market evaluation of the service. To this end, the dichotomous choice contingent valuation method is employed. On the whole, respondents accepted the contingent market and were willing to contribute a significant amount, on average. This willingness varies according to individual characteristics. Finally, the study discusses the importance of including valuation method in a pre-test-market evaluation of the PIS and presents the implications of the results, such as the mean willingness to pay (WTP) and the effects of individual characteristics and concerns about the service on the WTP.     

A comparison of empirical models used to infer the willingness to pay in contingent valuation

The essence of the contingent valuation method consists of creating a hypothetical market where respondents are asked about their willingness to pay (WTP) for a non-market good. Different empirical models can be formulated to estimate the expected WTP of a sample of respondents and, then, through aggregation, the social valuation of the good is inferred.This paper outlines the relevance of the distributional assumptions when estimating mean WTP. Several parametric and non-parametric methods are discussed and applied to calculate the existence value of a natural space. Results show that WTP is extremely sensitive to the empirical model used.First version received: November 2002 / Final version received: January 2004     

The impact of behavioural risk-reduction interventions on willingness to pay to avoid sexually transmitted infections: a stated preference study of justice-involved youth

Risky health behaviours, such as smoking, drinking and risky sex, are substantial contributors to the U.S. morbidity rates and healthcare costs. While economic models typically regard preferences as stable, a growing literature suggests that information, including how it interacts with intentions and attitudes, plays an important role in unhealthy behaviours. Relatedly, a large health literature demonstrates that theory-based behavioural interventions can successfully change risky behaviour. This study uses the contingent valuation (CV) survey method to investigate the impact of behavioural interventions on a novel outcome measure: the willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid the consequences associated with risky behaviour. Using novel pre- and post-intervention data from Project MARS (Motivating Adolescents to Reduce Sexual Risk), this study estimates the impact of the intervention on elicited WTP to avoid sexually transmitted infections (STIs). It is found that after the intervention, participants’ elicited WTP to avoid STIs were significantly higher, and more sensitive to differences in infection severity. These results suggest that the intervention may affect risky sexual behaviour by changing the perceived value of avoiding the consequences of risky sexual behaviour. Additionally, these findings contribute to an ongoing debate regarding the construct validity of CV studies in health economics.     

Willingness to Pay to Reduce Mortality Risks: Evidence from a Three-Country Contingent Valuation Study

Valuing a change in the risk of death is a key input into the calculation of the benefits of environmental policies that save lives. Typically such risks are monetized using the Value of a Statistical Life (VSL). Since the majority of the lives saved by environmental policies are those of older persons, there has been much recent debate about whether the VSL should be lower for the elderly to reflect their fewer remaining life years. We conducted a contingent valuation survey in the UK, Italy and France designed to answer this question. The survey was administered in these three countries following a standardized protocol. Our results suggest that the VSL is €1.022 million or €2.264 million, depending on whether we use median or mean WTP. The VSL is not significantly lower for older persons, but is higher for persons who have been admitted to a hospital or emergency room for cardiovascular and respiratory problems. Income is positively and significantly associated with WTP. The income elasticities of the WTP increase gradually with income levels and are between 0.15 and 0.5 for current income levels in EU countries. We use the responses to the WTP questions to estimate the value of an extension in remaining life expectancy. The value of a loss of one year’s life expectancy is €54,000 or €163,000.     

应用意愿价值评估法,科学制订生态补偿标准

本文系统梳理了生态服务及其价值评估、支付意愿与补偿标准之间的理论联系,分析了当前生态补偿实践中存在的理论误区,指出充分考虑利益主体的意愿是科学制定补偿标准的必要环节,意愿价值评估法的应用将增强我国生态补偿标准的科学性。最后,提出了该方法在生态补偿实践中存在的问题和研究方向。     

南京市公众对长江水质改善的支付意愿及支付方式的调查

本文以南京市为例．利用支付卡式的条件价值评估（OVM）技术．通过发放调查问卷及访谈的形式对公众改善长江水质的支付意愿进行了深入研究。结果表明：（1）南京市居民对长江水质恢复的户均年支付意愿为100．66元．76．5％的受访者的支付意愿大于零，8．4％的受访问者虽有支付意愿但限于低经济收入原因支付意愿为零．15.1％的受访者拒绝支付；（2）影响居民支付意愿的主要因素包括家庭收入、环境意识及文化程度；（3）南京市居民偏爱的支付方式依次为捐款、交税、存取基金方式及提高水价．水价上涨并不是面向公众筹集长江水质改善资金的唯一有效方式。根据调查结果，本文认为增加收入，提高水环境保护意识．引入“谁收益、谁支付”观点是提高居民支付意愿的有效途径。     

Willingness to Pay for Car Safety: Evidence from Sweden

This study estimates a marginal willingness to pay (WTP) function for a road-mortality risk reduction. Observed marginal WTP from the Swedish car market is used and found to be positively correlated with the baseline risk of the cars. No statistically significant relationships between examined owner attributes, e.g. wealth and background risk, and marginal WTP are found. When comparing the estimated monetary value of a non-marginal risk reduction derived from the integral of the marginal WTP-function with an estimate based on marginal WTP we find, in line with expectations, that the difference between the estimates is negligible for smaller risk reductions and small, 4–10%, also for relatively large risk reductions.