Did people "buy" what was "sold"? A qualitative evaluation a Contingent Valuation survey information set for gains in life expectancy

Rachel Baker (), Anna Bartczak, Susan Chilton () and Hugh Metcalf ()
Additional contact information
Rachel Baker: Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health, Glasgow Caledonian University
Susan Chilton: Newcastle University Business School
Hugh Metcalf: Newcastle University Business School

No 2012-16, Working Papers from Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw

Abstract: A number of stated preferences studies have quantified the value of gains in life expectancy from pollution control and use a Value of a Life Year (VOLY) approach to calculate the value placed on avoiding premature mortality following exposure to such pollution. However, life expectancy gains are a complex concept and no attempt has been made, to date, to investigate peoples’ understanding of what it is they are being asked to value. This paper uses a structured debriefing exercise to qualitatively investigate an approach which explicitly emphasises how this gain is delivered. We find that, for the majority of respondents, the approach is effective in communicating the ongoing nature of the gain and reduces the use of the (incorrect) heuristic that it is an ‘add-on’ at the end of life, in poor health. Further refinements are required, however, to communicate the cumulative nature of these risk reductions and the lack of impact on quality of life.

Keywords: air pollution reduction; contingent valuation; gain in life expectancy; information set and provision; qualitative debriefing survey; quality of life; Value of a Life Year (VOLY) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 I18 Q51 Q53 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2012
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.wne.uw.edu.pl/inf/wyd/WP/WNE_WP82.pdf First version, 2012 (application/pdf)

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:war:wpaper:2012-16

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Marcin Bąba ().