IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/resene/v86y2026ics0928765526000187.html

Stability of preferences for ecosystem damage prevention: Evidence from a test-retest over five years

Author

Listed:
  • Ørbeck, Martin
  • Lindhjem, Henrik
  • Kipperberg, Gorm
  • Loureiro, Maria

Abstract

The stability of people’s preferences for ecosystem services over long time periods remains underexplored. We examine the dynamics of willingness to pay (WTP) to prevent coastal ecosystem damage using two identical contingent valuation surveys administered to a high-quality Norwegian panel in 2015 and 2020. The 2020 sample includes new respondents and re-testers, yielding a large test-retest sample across a five-year period. We find evidence that neither mean WTP nor underlying preferences are temporally stable. Comparing the 2015 sample to new respondents in 2020, we estimate an increase in WTP driven by heterogeneity in both respondent characteristics and preference parameters. A modest decrease in WTP is estimated for the test-retest sample, which we ascribe to shifting preferences. Investigation of respondent-level dynamics in WTP highlights potential mechanisms behind the negative preference shift. Our study highlights important factors to consider when transferring stated preferences across long time periods, and demonstrates the need for future research on how environmental preferences evolve over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Ørbeck, Martin & Lindhjem, Henrik & Kipperberg, Gorm & Loureiro, Maria, 2026. "Stability of preferences for ecosystem damage prevention: Evidence from a test-retest over five years," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:resene:v:86:y:2026:i:c:s0928765526000187
    DOI: 10.1016/j.reseneeco.2026.101569
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0928765526000187
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.reseneeco.2026.101569?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • Q25 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Water
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • Q57 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Ecological Economics
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:resene:v:86:y:2026:i:c:s0928765526000187. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505569 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.