Can Hypothetical Questions Reveal True Values? A Laboratory Comparison of Dichotomous Choice and Open-Ended Contingent Values with Auction Values

Edward Balistreri, Gregory Poe, Gary H. McClelland and William D. Schulze

No 127865, Working Papers from Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management

Abstract: Can hypothetical questions reveal true values? An examination of the laboratory experimental literature examining contingent valuation (CV) lends some support for using open ended hypothetical willingness to pay questions. However, experimental studies examining dichotomous choice have found that hypothetical answers overstate demand. Consistent with the experimental literature, published CV studies comparing open-ended to dichotomous choice questions have shown that values from the latter method equal or exceed those of the former in every case. This paper presents a series of experiments employing more than 800 subjects to test this hypothesis for CV and compares the CV results to actual auction values in a single controlled experimental environment.

Keywords: Research; Methods/; Statistical; Methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29
Date: 1996-11
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Journal Article: Can Hypothetical Questions Reveal True Values? A Laboratory Comparison of Dichotomous Choice and Open-Ended Contingent Values with Auction Values (2001)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:cudawp:127865

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.127865

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