Restricted versus unrestricted choice in labelled choice experiments: exploring the tradeoffs of expanding choice dimensions

Jill Windle and John Rolfe

No 95072, Research Reports from Australian National University, Environmental Economics Research Hub

Abstract: The main objective of the study outlined in this paper was to examine how the inclusion of an additional labelled alternative, to provide respondents with more choice in a stated preference survey, impacted on choice complexity. The valuation context was to elicit preferences for improvements in the future condition of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. A split sample experiment was implemented where one survey included four labelled alternatives: a status quo option and three specific policy management options (restricted choice). The other survey provided respondents with an unrestricted choice set by including a fifth alternative choice, labelled as “a combination of management options”. While the additional option improved opportunities to find an attractive choice profile, adding an extra alternative increased the complexity of the survey. The tradeoff between choice flexibility and complexity is examined in terms of changes in respondents’ choice behaviour and the performance of the different models. The results provide some evidence that adding a combination policy alternative did change the ways that respondents viewed tradeoffs, but that choice behaviour and subsequent value estimates were consistent across the two survey formats.

Keywords: Resource/Energy; Economics; and; Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 19
Date: 2010-03
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:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/95072/files/Re ... ice%20dimensions.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:ags:eerhrr:95072

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.95072

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Research Reports from Australian National University, Environmental Economics Research Hub Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().