Understanding the consequences of consequentiality: Testing the validity of stated preferences in the field

Christian Vossler and Sharon B. Watson

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2013, vol. 86, issue C, 137-147

Abstract: This study pursues the external validation of stated preference methods by comparing survey responses from verified voters with the outcome of a parallel public referendum on a conservation and preservation program to be funded by a local property tax surcharge. The majority of respondents were unaware of the upcoming referendum, and the experimental design allows us to control for referenda-related information effects as well as respondents’ perceptions regarding the consequentiality (i.e. the potential policy impact) of their survey votes. We find the survey under-predicts “yes” referendum votes at the precinct-level. These differences go away, however, if we focus only on respondents who perceived their survey vote to be consequential. Negative hypothetical bias among inconsequential survey respondents is also evident in the estimation of willingness to pay, and controlling for consequentiality increases construct validity.

Keywords: Stated preferences; Voting; External validity; Consequentiality; Field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 H41 Q51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (122)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268112002661
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Understanding the consequences of consequentiality: Testing the validity of stated preferences in the field (2012)
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:jeborg:v:86:y:2013:i:c:p:137-147

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2012.12.007

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization is currently edited by Houser, D. and Puzzello, D.

More articles in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().