Simplifying choice through attribute preservation or non-attendance: Implications for willingness to pay

There is a growing interest in seeking out rules that individuals invoke when processing information in choice experiments. A rule that is attracting attention in stated choice studies is the extent to which respondents attend to or ignore one or more attributes in processing the information on offer. A model specification method is implemented in the context of a stated choice data set where car drivers choose between tolled and non-tolled routes. The evidence into a willingness to pay (WTP) for travel time savings is obtained, and contrasted with the results from the traditional full preservation model. The evidence suggests that the WTP is sufficiently different and higher, on average.