The willingness to pay–willingness to accept gap: A failed replication of Plott and Zeiler

The well-known willingness to pay–willingness to accept (WTP–WTA) gap refers to the observation that individuals attach a higher value to objects they own (WTA) than to objects they do not own (WTP). We report on experiments to re-investigate the possibility that the WTP–WTA gap arises from subject misconceptions due to experimental procedures as suggested by Plott and Zeiler (2005). The contribution of this paper is two-fold: first, we attempt to replicate the findings by Plott and Zeiler that the WTP–WTA gap disappears when using procedures that are aimed at reducing misconceptions, such as extensive training and practice rounds for the BDM mechanism. However, we fail to do so as the WTP–WTA gap persists in the main task where subjects state their WTA or WTP for a mug. Second, we use the paid practice rounds to identify subjects without apparent misconceptions and find that also for those subjects who never make dominated choices in the lottery tasks, the WTP–WTA gap in the mug task exists. Thus, we find no evidence of the idea that subject misconceptions are the main source of the WTP–WTA gap.     

Winners, Losers, and the Nuclear-Waste Dilemma

This paper explores how property-right assignment affects social efficiency when a public program has both “public good” and “public bad” components. We show that when willingness to accept a public bad exceeds the willingness to pay, the net benefit is unambiguously lower when the property right supports the status quo institutional structure. Thus, Kaldor–Hicks efficiency tests tend to favor public programs and mitigation over the status quo even when mitigation negatively affects another group. To illustrate the result, we develop social-cost estimates for moving nuclear waste from current temporary-storage facilities to a permanent central repository at Yucca Mountain, NV, USA. For a representative city with a population of 226,195, the present value of the external cost of shipping waste is $1.42 billion when those living near temporary nuclear-waste storage facilities are assigned the property right to “health and safety.” That number swells to $5.95 billion when those living near the transport route are assigned the property right. Thus, property-right assignment affects the efficient level of nuclear-waste, and thus nuclear energy, produced.     

A Joint Framework for Analysis of Agri-Environmental Payment Programs

This article presents an approach for simultaneously estimating farmers' decisions to accept incentive payments in return for adopting a bundle of environmentally benign best management practices. Using the results of a multinomial probit analysis of surveys of over 1,000 farmers facing five adoption decisions in a voluntary program, we show how the farmers' perceptions of the desirability of various bundles change with the offer amounts and with which practices are offered in the bundle. We also demonstrate an estimator for the mean minimum willingness to accept for the adoption of a practice conditional on the cost share offers for other practices.     

RETESTING THE UNCERTAINTY EFFECT USING LOTTERIES WITH REAL PRODUCTS AND MONEY

In the current study, several experiments re‐examine the uncertainty effect using lotteries that include real products, monetary outcomes and electronic gift cards in a between‐subjects design. The study also takes the selling position into consideration, in addition to the buying position considered by all previous works on the uncertainty effect. The results indicate that for all types of lotteries, the bids are higher than the bids for the worst possible realization. These findings are consistent with the internality axiom and do not support the uncertainty effect.     

国有土地上房屋被征收人的公平感知对征收补偿意愿的影响

研究目的：通过对国有土地上房屋被征收人的公平感知对征收决策的影响分析,尝试验证提高征收中的公平度并不一定会降低征收效率。研究方法：选取黄石市旧城改造区23个社区发放问卷,测量被征收人的公平感知和征收意愿、补偿意愿。运用结构方程模型对以上三者进行路径分析。研究结果：被征收人公平感知分为意图公平感知、过程公平感知、结果公平感知三维度,对被征收人的征收意愿具有正向影响,对被征收人的补偿意愿具有负向影响;被征收人的征收意愿在公平感知对补偿意愿的关系中起部分中介作用。研究结论：公平不一定与效率相对立,因此除了提高补偿价格之外,房屋征收政策制定还要注重征收目的的公益性和被征收人的知情权、参与权、选择权以及补偿的人际公平。     

Preferences for land sales legalization and land values in Ethiopia

This study investigates attitudes towards legalizing land sales and Willingness to Accept (WTA) sales prices and compensation prices for land among smallholder households in the southern highlands of Ethiopia. Household panel data from 2007 and 2012 are used. The large majority of the sample prefers land sales to remain illegal, and the resistance to legalizing land sales increased from 2007 to 2012. While resistance against land sales was strongest among the most land poor in 2007, the relatively more land rich had become more negative towards legalizing land sales in 2012. Younger age and more education were not associated with a more positive attitude towards legalizing land sales. In the same period, perceived median real land values increased sharply but also exhibit substantial local variation with higher land values in areas with better market access. Stated minimum land sales prices increased with farm size in 2012. The substantial increase in perceived land values, high economic growth and outmigration of youth have yet to persuade the rural population in southern Ethiopia to open the land sales market.     

玉米秸秆还田的受偿意愿分析——基于河北、山东两省的农户调查数据

秸秆还田作为目前秸秆资源化利用的主要方式之一,它有增加土壤有机质、改善土壤质量、提升作物产量等作用,同时还有保护生态环境、减少农业面源污染等功效。但秸秆还田所带来的成本增加,在某种程度上影响了农户秸秆还田的积极性,因此,给予农户一定补贴等激励措施势在必行。文章以玉米秸秆还田为例,基于河北、山东两省的农户调查数据,分析两个地区农户玉米秸秆的利用状况,在此基础上研究农户秸秆直接还田受偿意愿的影响因素。结果表明,农户受访者年龄、秸秆还田是否增加成本、秸秆还田增加的费用是否由政府承担、秸秆焚烧查处力度是否强、与秸秆不还田相比秸秆还田增加的费用这5个因素对农户秸秆还田受偿意愿有着显著的正向影响,而受访者是否是村干部和秸秆还田是否改善土壤质量这两个因素对农户秸秆还田受偿意愿有着显著的负向影响。