Do entreaties reduce the WTA–WTP disparity when valuing public goods?

Abstract

In this work we investigate the effects of entreaties to reduce the disparity between willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept (WTA) estimates in the valuation of a public program. We find that entreaties are very effective on reducing the hypothetical bias inherent to the WTA estimates, as well as the gap between both WTP and WTA welfare estimates. The success of such entreaties warrants future research in this area.

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge funding support from Fundación Caixa Galicia, and EU project EUI2008‐0365 FIREMAN, from the Biodiversa Call-ERANET.