Testing the sensitivity of stated environmental preferences to variations in choice architecture

Jülide Ceren Ahi, Margrethe Aanesen and Gorm Kipperberg

Ecological Economics, 2023, vol. 205, issue C

Abstract: We conducted a three-way split sample discrete choice experiment (DCE) to investigate welfare estimates for attributes related to the management of coastal cod stocks in Arctic Norway. In a base DCE design, respondents faced three core attributes: (1) coastal cod spawning biomass as an indicator of the sustainability of the cod stocks, (2) stricter regulations on primary user groups (commercial fishers, local recreational anglers, the marine fishing tourism industry), and (3) annual household cost. In two experimentally varied DCE designs, respondents received a fourth attribute that explicitly describes the expansion of the marine fishing tourism industry in the region. In treatment 1, the expansion is represented by the number of coastal cod caught by marine fishing tourists as an indicator of the industry's environmental impact. In treatment 2, the expansion is represented by the number of new jobs as an indicator of the industry's socioeconomic impact. These two attribute translations, designed to be perfectly correlated, serve as an instrument for testing a choice architecture - value activation framework recently proposed in the management science literature. Mixed logit estimation results indicate that welfare estimates vary significantly across choice architectures, both statistically and economically. Additional regression analyses of conditional welfare estimates and respondents' status quo choices yield mixed evidence of value activation. The overall message of the study is that DCE researchers should be cognizant of their role as choice architects when advising public resource managers and policymakers.

Keywords: Stated preferences; Discrete choice experiments; Ecosystem service valuation; Willingness-to-pay; Status quo; Choice architecture; Value activation; Signpost effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C25 Q22 Q51 Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092180092200341X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:205:y:2023:i:c:s092180092200341x

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107680

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Economics is currently edited by C. J. Cleveland

More articles in Ecological Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().