Information and Learning in Stated-Preference Studies

Mikolaj Czajkowski, Nick Hanley, Jacob LaRiviere, William Neilson and Katherine Simpson ()
Additional contact information
Katherine Simpson: Economics Division, University of Stirling, Scotland
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Katherine Needham

No 2016-20, Working Papers from Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw

Abstract: We use experimental variation to influence how people learn a given amount of objective, scientific information about an unfamiliar public good. We then estimate the impact of treatment on valuations for that good in a stated preference survey. Our main treatment, a pre-survey multiple choice quiz about objective public good attributes, increased learning rates by over 60%. We find that despite increasing learning and retention rates, treatment had no statistically significant impact on mean nor variance of the distribution of valuations. We show with a very simple theoretical model this result is consistent with a model of confirmatory bias used by agents in stated preference surveys and inconsistent with other models of preference formation.

Keywords: Information; Updating; Preferences; Public Goods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D01 D83 Q41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 54 pages
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm and nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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http://www.wne.uw.edu.pl/index.php/download_file/2941/ First version, 2016 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:war:wpaper:2016-20

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