Desire, moral evaluation or sense of duty: The modal framing of stated preference elicitation

Eva Wanek, Sacha Bourgeois-Gironde and Alda Mari
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Eva Wanek: Ecole normale supérieure – PSL University, 55040Institut Jean-Nicod, Paris, France
Alda Mari: Ecole normale supérieure – PSL University, 55040Institut Jean-Nicod, Paris, France

Environmental Values, 2024, vol. 33, issue 4, 434-459

Abstract: Contingent valuation surveys generally elicit stated preferences by asking how much a respondent would be willing to pay for an environmental improvement. By drawing on linguistic theory, we propose that the modal phrasing of this question establishes a particular type of commitment towards a hypothetical payment, namely a subjective want or desire. Based on the idea that beyond subjective desires, considerations about what is morally adequate may guide expressed values and that elicitation of these can be linguistically facilitated, we employ an experimental framework to investigate the effects of different modals ( willing, should and appropriate ) in the elicitation question on stated preferences. We find that elicited amounts with appropriate are higher than those elicited with willing and should for environmental improvements more associated with use values, while differences are non-significant for environmental improvements more associated with non-use values. We discuss the implications of our findings for stated preference studies, as well as the potential broader theoretical implications that our study entails regarding linguistic representations of the moral entrenchment of environmental values.

Keywords: Environmental economic valuation; contingent valuation; deontic values; linguistic modality; language (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Working Paper: Desire, moral evaluation or sense of duty: The modal framing of stated preference elicitation (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envval:v:33:y:2024:i:4:p:434-459

DOI: 10.1177/09632719231212391

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