In this paper, we test whether preferences and willingness-to-pay estimates obtained in a Choice Experiment study are susceptible to starting point bias as is often the case in Dichotomous Choice Contingent Valuation studies. On the basis of a multinomial probit model, we find that preferences are indeed susceptible to starting point bias. In a split-sample design our results suggest that varying the price levels displayed in a so-called Instructional Choice Set presented prior to the actual preference eliciting choice sets, significantly impacts respondents' preferences and willingness-to-pay for protecting Danish nature areas from new motorway development. In particular, our results show that the bias is gender-specific. Only female respondents are significantly affected. Results further reveal that the impact of the starting point bias decays as respondents evaluate more and more choice sets. This supports the Discovered Preference Hypothesis, and on the basis of this we suggest a number of ways to potentially mitigate the starting point bias.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Volume (Year): 56 (2008) Issue (Month): 3 (November) Pages: 275-285 Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
(with abstract),
plain text
(with abstract),
BibTeX,
RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite),
ReDIF
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)