Does context matter more for hypothetical than for actual contributions? Evidence from a natural field experiment

Francisco Alpizar (), Fredrik Carlsson () and Olof Johansson-Stenman ()
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Francisco Alpizar: Environment for Development Center, Tropical Agricultural and Higher Education Center (CATIE), Postal: 7170 Turrialba, Costa Rica

No 251, Working Papers in Economics from Göteborg University, Department of Economics

Abstract: We investigate the importance of the social context for people’s voluntary contributions to a national park in Costa Rica, using a natural field experiment. Some subjects make actual contributions while others state their hypothetical contribution. Both the degree of anonymity and provided information about the contributions of others influence subject contributions in the hypothesized direction. We do find a substantial hypothetical bias with regard to the amount contributed. However, the influence of the social contexts is about the same when the subjects make actual monetary contributions as when they state theirhypothetical contributions. Our results have important implications for validity testing of stated preference methods: a comparison between hypothetical and actual behavior should be done for a given social context.

Keywords: Environmental valuation; stated preference methods; voluntary contributions; anonymity; conformity; natural field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 Q50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-env, nep-exp, nep-res and nep-soc
Date: 2007-04-19
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Journal Article: Does context matter more for hypothetical than for actual contributions? Evidence from a natural field experiment (2008)
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