In a static setting, willingness to pay for an environmental improvement is equal to the compensating variation. However, in a dynamic setting willingness to pay may also contain a commitment cost. In this paper we incorporate the dynamic nature of the value formation process into a stated preference study designed to test whether there is an important dynamic component (commitment cost) in stated preference values. The results clearly indicate that stated preference values can contain commitment costs and that these can be quite large: respondents offered the opportunity to delay their purchasing decisions until more information became available were willing to pay significantly less for improved water quality than those facing a now-or-never decision. These results have important consequences for the design and interpretation of stated preference data.
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Paper provided by Kenyon College, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number
0603.
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Find related papers by JEL classification: Q26 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Recreational Aspects of Natural Resources C42 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Survey Methods D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
References listed on IDEAS 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.:
Carson, Richard T. & Hanemann, W. Michael & Kopp, Raymond J. & Krosnick, Jon A. & Mitchell, Robert C. & Presser, Stanley & Ruud, Paul A. & Smith, V. Kerry, 1995.
"Temporal Reliability of Estimates from Contingent Valuation,"
Working Papers
95-05, Duke University, Department of Economics.
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Other versions:
Richard T. Carson & W. Michael Hanemann, & Raymond J. Kopp & Jon A. Krosnick & Robert C. Mitchell & Stanley Presser & Paul A. Rudd & V. Kerry Smith & Michael Conaway & Kerry Martin, 1997.
"Temporal Reliability of Estimates from Contingent Valuation,"
Land Economics,
University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 73(2), pages 151-163.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)