Does public opinion influence willingness-to-pay? Evidence from the field

Abstract

Contingent valuation (CV) surveys have been criticized for assuming that respondents have well-defined preferences. Using an innovative field experiment dealing with a privatized public good, it is shown that respondents are not influenced by public opinion but are positively responsive to scientific information.

Acknowledgements

Authors thank Anna Alberini, Dominique Ami, Xavier Joutard, Stéphane Robin, Sylvie Thoron and Marc Willinger for helpful comments and suggestions. Financial support of French Environment Ministry (no. 36/98, PRIMEQUAL) and technical support from the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur Regional Council are gratefully acknowledged.

Notes

¹ This experiment was part of a larger study conducted in the South of France, involving 1273 respondents. The questionnaires and data collection methods were extensively pre-tested and verified in qualitative interviews.

² Jones-Lee and Loomes (1999) proceed similarly in assessing WTP to reduce the risk of road accidents in New Zealand.

³ Information was simultaneously presented on individual screens and aloud to ensure that all respondents had the same information.

⁴ The average age was 30.1 years and 50.2% of respondents were younger than 25; 60.4% were female; 90.2% lived in a city with more than 100 000 inhabitants; 66% were unmarried; the average annual household per unit of consumption was USD 13.500, which corresponds to P25 of the French distribution; and 51.3% had not progressed beyond senior high school.

⁵ The null hypothesis is H ₀: ‘no mean difference in stated WTP between two elicitation steps’.

⁶ Provision of information is said to be positive if it leads all individuals to increase their belief about the expected benefits of the good with at least one strict inequality.