Parametric and Semi-Nonparametric Estimation of Willingness-to-Pay in the Dichotomous Choice Contingent Valuation Framework

Standard procedures for extractingwillingness-to-pay (WTP) from dichotomouschoice CV questionnaires rely heavily uponparametric assumptions regarding thedistribution and form of WTP in the sampledpopulation. However, theory provides littleguidance regarding which parametricspecification to use and the resulting WTPestimates can be sensitive to the selectionsmade. Here we compare and contrast severalparametric and semi-nonparametric estimatorsthat have been proposed in the literature,examining the sensitivity of the resulting WTPestimates to the underlying distribution ofpreferences and the estimation procedureemployed.