The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth A Multiple Country Test of an Oath Script

Fredrik Carlsson, Mitesh Kataria (), Alan Krupnick (), Elina Lampi, Åsa Löfgren, Ping Qin (), Thomas Sterner and Susie Chung ()
Additional contact information
Ping Qin: Peking University, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering
Susie Chung: Resources for the Future, Washington

No 2010-076, Jena Economics Research Papers from Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena

Abstract: Hypothetical bias is one of the main issues bedeviling the field of nonmarket valuation. The general criticism is that survey responses reflect how people would like to behave, rather than how they actually behave. In our study of climate change and emissions reductions, we took advantage of the increasing bulk of evidence from psychology and economics that addresses the effects of making promises, in order to investigate the effect of an oath script in a contingent valuation survey. The survey was conducted in Sweden and China, and its results indicate that an oath script has significant effects on respondent behavior in answering willingness-to-pay (WTP) questions, some of which vary by country. In both countries, the share of zero WTP responses and extremely high WTP responses decreases when an oath script is used, which also results in lower variance. In China, the oath script also reduces the average WTP, cutting it by half in certain instances. We also found that the oath script has different impacts on various respondent groups. For example, without the oath script, Communist party members in China are more likely than others to have a positive WTP for emissions reductions, but with the oath script, there is no longer any difference between the groups.

Keywords: Oath script; hypothetical bias; willingness to pay (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D61 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-11-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-ene, nep-env, nep-exp and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth—A multiple country test of an oath script (2013)
Working Paper: The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth - A Multiple Country Test of an Oath Script (2010)
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