More random or more deterministic choices? The effects of information on preferences for biodiversity conservation

Mikolaj Czajkowski and Nick Hanley

No 2012-10, Working Papers from Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw

Abstract: For many years, stated preference researchers have been interested in the effects of information on willingness to pay for environmental goods. Within the random utility model, information about an environmental good might impact on preferences and on scale (error variance), both between and within samples of choices. In this paper, we extend the G-MNL model to investigate the effects of different information sets on choices over the management of biodiversity in the UK, looking specifically at moorlands managed for red grouse shooting. Specifically, we make the individual scale parameter a function of observable (dataset-specific) characteristics. Our results show that changing information sets results in significant differences in the mean scale between datasets, and in the variance of scale. Respondents are more deterministic in their choices and show lower within-sample scale heterogeneity in the alternative information treatment. Changes in information provision also effect willingness to pay estimates, reducing the value people place on the conservation of two iconic birds of prey. The methods used will also be of interest to researchers who need to combine choice experiment data sets.

Keywords: choice modelling; information effects; scale; scale heterogeneity; G-MNL; heather moorland management; raptor conservation; combined SP-RP (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C59 C81 D12 Q15 Q51 Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2012
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-env and nep-upt
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.wne.uw.edu.pl/inf/wyd/WP/WNE_WP76.pdf First version, 2012 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: More random or more deterministic choices? The effects of information on preferences for biodiversity conservation (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:war:wpaper:2012-10

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Marcin Bąba ().