Effects of Experience, Knowledge and Signals on Willingness to Pay for a Public Good

Jacob LaRiviere, Mikolaj Czajkowski, Nick Hanley, Margrethe Aanesen, Jannike Falk-Peterson and Dugald Tinch

No 2014-008, SIRE Discussion Papers from Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE)

Abstract: This paper compares how increases in experience versus increases in knowledge about a public good affect willingness to pay (WTP) for its provision. This is challenging because while consumers are often certain about their previous experiences with a good, they may be uncertain about the accuracy of their knowledge. We therefore design and conduct a field experiment in which treated subjects receive a precise and objective signal regarding their knowledge about a public good before estimating their WTP for it. Using data for two different public goods, we show qualitative equivalence of the effect of knowledge and experience on valuation for a public good. Surprisingly, though, we find that the causal effect of objective signals about the accuracy of a subject’s knowledge for a public good can dramatically affect their valuation for it: treatment causes an increase of $150-$200 in WTP for well-informed individuals. We find no such effect for less informed subjects. Our results imply that WTP estimates for public goods are not only a function of true information states of the respondents but beliefs about those information states.

Keywords: Information; Beliefs; Field Experiment; Valuation; Uncertainty; Choice Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-cta, nep-dcm, nep-exp and nep-ger
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (44)

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Working Paper: Effects of Experience, Knowledge and Signals on Willingness to Pay for a Public Good (2014)
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