trends in time allocation a cross country analysis abstract using detailed time use data for seven industrialized countries from the 1970s until today we document general decreases in men s market work coupled with increases in men s unpaid work and child care and increases in women s paid work and child care coupled with decreases in unpaid work we also find almost universal increases in the time devoted to watching television over this period and uncover a widespread increase in leisure inequality in favor of lower educated adults trends in leisure inequality mirror the general increase in income and earnings inequality experienced in most countries over this period especially after the mid 1980s all these findings are consistent with previous results for the us however in contrast to the increases in leisure found for the us we fail to find common trends in leisure time across countries over the period analyzed

statistical efficiency of double bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation the statistical efficiency of conventional dichotomous choice contingent valuation surveys can be improved by asking each respondent a second dichotomous choice question which depends on the response to the first question if the first response is yes the second bid is some amount greater than the first bid while if the first response is no the second bid is some amount smaller this double bounded approach is shown to be asymptotically more efficient than the conventional singlebounded approach using data from a survey of californians regarding their willingness to pay for wetlands in the san joaquin valley we show that in a finite sample the gain in efficiency can be very substantial

layoffs and unemployment insurance abstract this paper presents econometric evidence of a causal relationship between the frequency of layoffs and the structure of the unemployment insurance system the data are pooled time series and cross sectional observations on layoffs ui benefits ui taxes and wages annual dummy variables and industry mix variables are included to adjust for pooling weighted two stage least squares is used to adjust for aggregation and for reverse casuality the empirical results confirm the expectations of the theoretical models and indicate that ui has a substantial effect on layoff rates

the disparity between willingness to accept and willingness to pay measures of value psychologists have long argued that people are much more averse to a loss than attracted to an equivalent gain this behavior termed loss aversion has been formalized by kahneman and tversky 1979 in their reformulation of expected utility theory prospect theory in prospect theory the utility function is replaced by a value function that evaluates changes in income from the current level increases in income are weighted by a relatively small marginal utility decreases in income are weighted by a much larger marginal utility in effect the value function implies that a kink in the relationship between utility and income occurs at the initial income or reference point and that the slope of the utility function for losses in income is steeper than it is for gains in a recent paper knetsch and sinden 1984 report a series of experiments that demonstrate the existence of a large disparity between willingness to accept wta and willingness to pay wtp measures of value they argue that the psychological theory of loss aversion explains this difference economic theory would suggest that individuals who exhibit a large disparity between wta and wtp are perhaps underperceiving the value of gains or overperceiving the value of losses are behaving in an irrational manner and will consequently achieve a lower level of well being than if they behaved in a true utility maximizing manner this would in contrast to loss aversion usually imply near equal values for wta and wtp see willig 1976 further documentation of a larger than expected disparity between wta and wtp has been obtained in surveys asking for the value of a variety of public goods for example cummings brookshire and schulze 1986 document six

estimation using contingent valuation data from a dichotomous choice with follow up questionnaire reply abstract our original article proposed that the two yes no willingness to pay wtp responses produced by this survey format should be viewed as a pair of jointly distributed correlated discrete random variables the comparison model the conventional approach to estimation using these types of data contained a programming error correction alters the results from the comparison model but our original claim that estimation by conventional methods can produce misleading inferences if ours is the appropriate specification still stands this is especially true if negative wtp is precluded when e wtp is calculated

testing for the survey mode effect on contingent valuation data quality a case study of web based versus in person interviews this paper addresses the lack of empirical evaluation of the use of web based surveys in the context of contingent valuation surveys we compare using a case study in person interviews with web based surveys regarding response rate information additivity effects and respondents attitudes towards paying the web based survey had a much lower response 5 1 than the in person interviewing 84 we find the web based contingent valuation surveys to be neither more susceptible to information additivity effects nor more prone to zero protest responses we conclude in favor of the use of web based surveys namely in portugal where the number of internet users is rapidly increasing although further research efforts are required on their use

estimating willingness to pay for improved water quality in the presence of item nonresponse bias this article deals with the problem of item nonresponse in contingent valuation surveys using a payment card method by applying a grouped data sample selection estimation technique that is capable of imputing the missing values conditional upon a respondent s decision to answer a willingness to pay question the advantage of the technique lies in its ability to utilize all of the information in the sample permitting a more efficient estimation in the presence of item nonresponse bias the major determinants of willingness to pay appear to be household income number of children education perception of existing water quality and identification with environmental issues copyright 2003 oxford university press

a test of the equality of closed ended and open ended contingent valuations a test is developed to find whether open ended and closed ended contingent valuation mechanisms lead to significantly different results the test is based on joint estimation of willingness to pay responses to open and closed ended questions asked of the same sample of individuals in a public good example individuals do respond differently depending on question format possible explanations include different incentives for strategic behavior and respondents lack of familiarity with the open ended question type no differences in willingness to pay were found in a private good example

sensitivity of willingness to pay estimates to bid design in dichotomous choice contingent valuation models this paper addresses the sensitivity of dichotomous choice contingent valuation method dc cvm based mean willingness to pay wtp estimates to the dc cvm sample design and to alternative measures of wtp this issue is examined both analytically and empirically the analysis of ten different dc cvm data sets revealed a sensitivity in estimated mean wtp to the sample design and to the measure chosen to calculate mean wtp

a satisfactory benefit cost indicator from contingent valuation abstract standard economic concepts are used to develop a model of individual behavior when subject to the constraints of the contingent valuation choice context the model yields refutable consequences that are consistent with previously reported empirical findings including some that have been thought to be anomalous the model is used to show that different contingent valuation formats have predictably different performance characteristics notably the hicksian compensating measures are satisfactory benefit cost indicators when elicited using any one of several formats identified in the text of the formats examined one form of a policy referendum appears to have the most satisfactory characteristics overall we conclude that contingent valuation is a progressing research program

ecosystem service value assessment for constructed wetlands a case study in hangzhou china abstract based on a comprehensive analysis of various classifications of natural resource values we summarized an ecological economic value system of constructed wetland cw ecosystems for treating eutrophic water using the cw located at the hangzhou botanical garden as an example the contingent valuation method cvm and shadow project approach spa were applied to estimate the economic values of cw system ecosystem services the cvm estimated a value of 800 000 yuan yuan chinese currency 7 6 yuan 1 usd as of august 2007 as the total economic value of the cw in a twenty year period meanwhile the spa calculated a value of 23 04 million yuan as the total economic value of the cw in a twenty year period it is determined that compared to the cvm the spa provides a more approximate value of the true monetary value of the hangzhou botanical garden cw this study could fill the gap of knowledge and provide a benchmark when evaluating constructed ecosystem services and help policy makers to promote the development of constructed wetlands in china

age seniority and labour costs lessons from the finnish it revolution the bad labour market performance of the workforce over 50 indicates that an aged workforce is often a burden for firms our paper seeks to investigate whether and why this is the case by providing evidence on the relation between age seniority and experience on the one hand and the main components of labour costs namely productivity and wages on the other for a sample of plants in three manufacturing industries forest industrial machinery and electronics in finland during the it revolution in the 1990s in average industries those not undergoing major technological shocks productivity and wages keep rising almost indefinitely with the accumulation of either seniority in the forest industry or experience in the industry producing industrial machinery in these industries the skill depreciation often associated with higher seniority beyond a certain threshold does not seemingly raise labour costs in electronics instead the seniority productivity profile shows a positive relation first and then becomes negative as one looks at plants with higher average seniority this body of evidence is consistent with the idea that fast technical change brings about accelerated skill depreciation of senior workers we cannot rule out however that our correlations are also simultaneously produced by worker movements across plants the seniority earnings profile in electronics is instead rather similar to that observed for the other industries a likely symptom of the prevailing finnish wage bargaining institutions which tend to make seniority one essential element of wage determination in the end seniority matters for labour costs not age as such but only in high tech industries not in the economy at large this is well tuned with previous research on gross flows of workers and jobs in the us and other oecd countries which unveiled the productivity driving role of resource reallocation or lack thereof between plants to improve the employability of the elderly at times of fast technical change public policy should thus divert resources away from preserving existing jobs and lend more attention to the retraining of old workers to ease their reallocation away from less productive plants or plants where they have become less productive into new jobs francesco daveri and mika maliranta

a new paradigm for valuing non market goods using referendum data maximum likelihood estimation by censored logistic regression abstract this paper challenges the w m hanemann amer j agr econom 66 332 341 1984 and c sellar j p chavas and j r stoll j environ econom management 13 382 390 1986 utilizations of logit models to estimate the value of non market resources from referendum survey data these data are more informative than conventional choice data the random utility interpretation of logit models is therefore too restrictive bypassing the utility function entirely it will be shown that parameters and standard errors for utility theoretic inverse hicksian demand functions can be extracted directly and much more simply estimated demand functions need not be limited to those corresponding to the linear in parameters utility difference specifications which can be handled by packaged logit programs

a pilot test of a new stated preference valuation method continuous attribute based stated choice abstract a new stated preference nonmarket valuation technique is developed in an interactive computerized survey respondents move continuous sliders to vary levels of environmental attributes the total cost of the combination of attributes is calculated according to a preprogrammed cost function continuously updated and displayed as respondents move the sliders each registered choice reveals the respondent s marginal willingness to pay for each of the attributes the method is tested in a museum exhibit on global climate change two construct validity tests were conducted responses are sensitive to the shape of the cost function in ways that are consistent with expectations based on economic theory implied marginal willingness to pay values were similar to those estimated using a more traditional paired comparisons stated choice format however responses showed range effects that indicate potential cognitive biases

validation of empirical measures of welfare change a comparison of nonmarket techniques since the passing of the flood control act of 1936 the attention of many resource economists has been directed towards measuring the benefits and costs of alternative uses of natural resources increasingly it has been recognized that the value of some of these uses is not explicitly determined through market transactions this has led to the focus of much attention upon the development of nonmarket methods to estimate the value of these uses in the 1940s the groundwork for the travel cost method was established by hotelling prewitt 1949 following this in the 1960s davis initiated the basic foundation for bidding methods davis 1963 which were later to be subsumed under the heading of contingent valuation methods brookshire randall and stoll 1980 schulze d arge and brookshire 1981 thayer 1981 both of these methods will be further discussed below in addition to these two methods a third approach the unit day value method has been recognized as acceptable but not preferred for the valuation of recreational uses of water and related land resources dwyer kelley and bowes 1977 u s water resources council 1979 given the existence of alternative methods of estimating the value of resource uses several obvious questions arise one of the first of these is under what circumstances is each method most appropriate existing literature has focussed sufficiently on this question and pointed out limitations of each especially the travel cost method and unit day value methods brookshire ives and schulze 1976 dwyer kelly and bowes 1977 freeman 1979 mcconnell 1975 randall ives and eastman 1977 schulze d arge and brook

a meta analysis of contingent valuation forest studies abstract forest ecosystems provide a variety of valuable goods and services this paper presents a meta analysis of forest studies using the contingent valuation cv method to value the provision of forest values around the world in this meta analysis we estimate the marginal value of different management programs that provide a variety of forest goods and services our results show that willingness to pay wtp estimates for forest management programs are sensitive to the program s objectives particularly when linked to the provision of recreational services other variables such as the type of forest location survey mode or the type of respondent were also found to significantly affect the wtp estimates

stated preferences real behaviour and anchoring some empirical evidence we compare different contingent valuation question formats with each other and with observed behaviour for a non monetary estimation task the expected number of kilometers travelled by automobile open ended questions open ended follow up questions dichotomous choice dc questions and double bound dc questions are included the single and double bound dc questions result in an estimated mean about twice as high as the actual value and the open ended mean the dc question overestimation seems to be due to an anchoring effect leading to yea saying behaviour our results about the difference between dc questions and open ended questions is consistent with the pattern observed in contingent valuations studies of the willingness to pay our results indicates that dc questions seem to be associated with a general overestimation problem that is present even for simple non monetary estimation tasks

alternative approaches for incorporating respondent uncertainty when estimating willingness to pay the case of the mexican spotted owl abstract this paper explores the sources and patterns of respondents uncertainty regarding their willingness to pay wtp and presents alternative approaches for incorporating this uncertainty into estimation of the logit model recently proposed approaches are compared to methods proposed in this paper which allows for incorporation of uncertainty regarding both yes and no responses these approaches are evaluated by comparing the goodness of fit and variability of mean wtp extreme recoding of uncertain yes responses as no responses reduces the logit goodness of fit and the precision of the wtp estimate incorporating the degree of uncertainty of yes responses results in the highest goodness of fit and the smallest variability of mean wtp among the various models addressing uncertainty a regression model is used to determine the significant determinants of respondent uncertainty

use of dichotomous choice nonmarket methods to value the whooping crane resource market prices for endangered wildlife species rarely exist when prices do exist they arc not likely to reflect accurately individual preferences both consumptive uses such as hunting fishing and trapping boyle and bishop 1985 stou and johnson brookshire eubanks and randall and more esoteric benefits such as viewing and existence values must be considered this article is addressed to the valuation of whooping cranes grus americana a prominent endangered species the purpose of this article is to present a methodology for estimating nonconsumptive benefits associated with the existence of an endangered species a dichotomous choice form of contingent valuation is applied to quantify individuals economic surplus associated with preservation of the whooping crane resource specific issues and limitations of the empirical approach are discussed some of which have been previously examined by bishop and heberlein 1979 and hanemann the present paper expands upon earlier work in several ways fit in addition to discussing the above issues a unique application of the approach to an endangered species is presented second three model specifications are examined two of which arc consistent with utility theory and one which is not hanemann ti again following hanemann economic surplus is estimated at the sample median as well as the mean the dii cussion of the last two issues sheds sit on their implications for estimation of economic surplus throughout the article the suitability of alternative estimation techniques for dichom mous choice or referendum style data is examined the methodological and empirical results are relevant to a number of cumnt issues regarding model specification choice of binary response model and choice of estimator for equivalent surplus hanemann boyle and bishop 1984 sellar chavas and stoll

contingent valuation experiments for strategic behavior abstract the existence and extent of strategic disclosures in field contingent valuation surveys have been debated but few empirical studies are available this paper summarizes the results of an experiment to identify strategic behavior using alternative disclosure mechanisms with closed ended and open ended formats in addition the experiment examined the effect of mechanism design on respondent s ability and willingness to disclose their personal valuation statistical results using censored discrete regression analysis and nonparameteric means tests provide some evidence of systematic differences due to strategic behavior but the comparisons are inconclusive due to the significant influence of sample selection on valuation results using closed ended formats and the inherent limitations of comparative means test procedures evidence from this analysis cannot refute the hypothesis that respondents try to the best of their ability to provide truthful information but the procedures used to interpret this information can have a significant effect on aggregate valuation results

is there chronic excess supply of labor designing a statistical test abstract we devise and implement a statistical test of the hypothesis that the labor market has chronic excess supply we find that the data reject this hypothesis

starting point bias in dichotomous choice valuation with follow up questioning abstract follow up questions are frequently used to improve the efficiency of dichotomous choice contingent valuation questionnaires however a number of authors e g 12 16 have noted a significant difference between the wtp distributions implied by initial and follow up question responses this paper investigates starting point bias as one explanation for the phenomenon we develop a model of starting point bias in the context of dichotomous choice questioning with follow up using a monte carlo simulation to illustrate the potential bias imparted to wtp estimates an application is provided based on data from a cv study in northcentral iowa

a general model of starting point bias in double bounded dichotomous contingent valuation surveys abstract this paper develops a general model that addresses the starting point bias in the dichotomous choice evaluation data by incorporating both the anchoring effect and yea saying bias the model is applied to a contingent valuation study that evaluated the health benefits of air quality improvement in three major metropolitan areas in taiwan the empirical evidence shows a strong anchoring effect but an insignificant yea saying bias the results show a serious understated willingness to pay if the biases in anchoring and yea saying are not controlled

modeling starting point bias as unobserved heterogeneity in contingent valuation surveys an application to air pollution up to now the starting point bias has generally been considered to be a homogeneous phenomenon in this article we treat anchoring as an unobserved heterogeneous phenomenon our contribution is twofold first we show analytically and by way of simulations that assuming homogeneous anchoring can be hazardous and lead to misspecifications second we propose an econometric model that starts with a dichotomous question and then uses an open ended question we finally apply our model to a contingent valuation survey on air quality our results suggest that how anchoring is modeled in empirical studies deserves more attention

an independent sample test of yea saying and starting point bias in dichotomous choice contingent valuation abstract we developed several diagnostic tools to test the convergent validity of two common contingent valuation elicitation procedures data were collected from independent samples receiving dichotomous choice and payment card questions we compared actual with counter factual responses using deterministic and monte carlo methods and we found that wtp distributions and mean values varied by the value elicitation method we also developed a paired comparison test for procedure variance which indicated that yea saying and starting point bias influenced dichotomous choice responses

further evidence on estimation of a disequilibrium aggregate labor market that final demand of 55 units for commodity one generates 45 29 units of pollution and final demand of 30 units for commodity two generates 18 44 units of pollution from the appropriate elements in the last row of the inverse we can calculate the coefficients of pollution generated per unit of final demand these coefficients are 0 823 for commodity one and 0 615 for commodity two it should be pointed out that the allocation of total pollution in 12 differs from that given by leontief because he subdivides the total according to gross output figures rather than by final demand references

contingent valuation of community forestry programs in ethiopia controlling for preference anomalies in double bounded cvm this study examines the welfare effects of community plantations in ethiopia via contingent valuation both single bounded and double bounded survey methods were considered and with respect to double bounded methods the potential for anomalous response behaviour was also taken into account the results generally confirm that there are statistically significant welfare benefits to be derived from community forestry however the range of the estimated benefits is large after controlling for anomalous response behaviour the range of estimated benefits narrows and our preferred estimates place the welfare gain between ethiopian birr etb 20 14 and 30 41 per household which is much lower than the estimated benefits without controlling for anomalous preference responses

the distribution of earnings in finland 1971 1990 abstract we document the distribution and changes in the distribution of earnings in finland from 1971 to 1990 using a large representative set of data collected from the population censuses earnings inequality dropped dramatically between 1971 and 1975 and continued to decrease until 1985 from 1985 to 1990 there was a substantial increase in the inequality of earnings comparable in magnitude to that found in the u k and u s while earlier shifts in the inequality of earnings could be accounted for by changes in observed characteristics the large increase at the end of the 1980s occurs almost completely in the dispersion of earnings within cells of observationally equivalent wage earners after considering and discarding a number of possible explanations for the changes we find that changes in labour market institutions are consistent with the observed changes on the inequality of earnings

unemployment insurance and labor supply and demand a time series analysis for the united states abstract a disequilibrium model of the u s labor market in which the unemployment insurance system plays a key role is estimated an increase in the level of real unemployment benefits markedly lowers employment and raises real wages

bequest values for marine resources how important for indigenous communities in less developed economies communities owning and living on ancestral land tend to have a strong sense of stewardship over the land and its resources which may translate into an economic value to present generations of being able to pass on ancestral lands to future generations i e bequest value this study estimates bequest values to local users of a traditional fishing ground on the coral coast of fiji using a contingent valuation approach using monetary as well as time based contributions bequest values are estimated at between fj 1 25 1 41 us 0 64 0 73 per individual per week or fj 183 90 us 106 91 per household per year this represents a significant proportion of stated average household expenditure comparable to spending on durable household goods and clothes and footwear these results suggest that low income groups may have significant bequest values which should be accounted for in developing economy valuation studies

discrete choice under preference uncertainty an improved structural model for contingent valuation abstract this paper is concerned with discrete choice contingent value estimation in the presence of response errors we attempt to extend the theoretical frameworks developed by hanemann 1984 amer j agric econom 66 332 341 and cameron 1988 j environ econom management 15 355 379 by introducing preference uncertainty with individual respondents we assume that respondents have incomplete knowledge about their true valuation of a nonmarket resource and thus may give wrong yes no answers on whether or not to pay a given bid amount for the resource a post decisional confidence measure for each observed yes no answer is elicited for characterizing the degree of preference uncertainty with the help of this confidence measure we develop an improved structural model for deriving value estimates data from a forest environment valuation survey are used for the empirical estimations

choke price bias in choice experiments this paper reports on the results from a split sample choice experiment where the effect of changing the maximum level of the cost attribute is investigated the hypothesis was that changing the maximum price level would either give rise to an income effect or have no effect on consumers preferences this was tested in the framework of a valuation study of different quality characteristics of minced pork the data was analysed using a mixed logit error component model which accounts for correlation in the unobserved part of the utility results suggest that the size of the maximum price level does matter and that changing the maximum price level has a statistically significant effect on both the general preferences structure and the wtp estimates hence researchers should be very careful when defining not only the range of the price attribute but also the maximum level of the price attribute

efficient estimation methods for closed ended contingent valuation surveys closed ended contingent valuation surveys can be very useful in the evaluation of nonmarket resources respondents merely state whether they would accept or reject a hypothetical threshold amount either as payment for giving up access to the resource or as a fee for its use the authors develop a maximum likelihood procedure which exploits the variation in the threshold values to allow direct and separate point estimates of regression like slope coefficients and error standard deviations without truncation bias their illustration uses data from a survey of recreational fisherman to examine factors which influence individuals willingness to pay copyright 1987 by mit press

contingent valuation and social choice the contingent valuation method for estimating the existence value of natural resources is examined for psychophysical robustness statistical reliability and economic sensibility extensions of standard models for willingness to pay and suitable econometric techniques for analyzing these models are developed the analysis is applied to a series of experiments on the value of preserving wilderness areas in the western united states the results call into question the reliability of the cv method for estimating existence values

option price estimates for water quality improvements a contingent valuation study for the monongahela river abstract we present the findings from a contingent valuation survey designed to estimate the option price bids for the improved recreation resulting from enhanced water quality in the pennsylvania portion of the monongahela river the findings are based on a survey design that used professional interviewers to conduct personal interviews determined from a representative sample of 393 households in addition the research suggests that protest bids and outliers be viewed similarly accordingly a new technique for identifying outlying responses is proposed the findings suggest that the question format affects the option price estimates and that criteria for determining the final sample of responses can have an important influence on contingent valuation results

a comparison of two methods for eliciting contingent valuations of colorectal cancer screening willingness to pay wtp is being used increasingly in health technology assessment although a number of methodological issues remain unresolved using data obtained from a randomised questionnaire survey we investigated the metrical properties of two wtp formats the open ended question versus the payment scale in the context of screening for colorectal cancer approximately 2800 responses were analysed household income attitudes toward health promotion and personal risk perceptions were the principal determinants of the nature and value of response in comparison with the open ended format the payment scale achieved a higher completion rate and generated higher valuations we believe that a framing effect is the most plausible explanation for these differences in performance in contrast to previous findings we do not find subjects perceptions of the resource cost of interventions to be a convincing explanation for either their wtp values or inconsistencies between values and preferences although a proportion of respondents protested at the notion of valuation the majority offer positive valuations although typically of a lower value that non protesters

option value an exposition and extension this article examines the role of the discount rate in making decisions that will have significant implications for the environment the authors begin by providing a rationale for discounting in general and by describing the main factors that determine

evaluating the validity of the dichotomous choice question format in contingent valuation hypothetical and actual cash willingness to pay wtp for an art print were elicited with dichotomous choice and open ended question formats comparing hypothetical and actual dichotomous choice responses using both a likelihood ratio test and the method of convolutions suggests we reject equality at the 0 05 but not the 0 01 level hypothetical wtp was roughly two times actual wtp with the dichotomous choice format there were no significant differences between the open ended and dichotomous choice question formats when both were used to estimate hypothetical wtp or both used to estimate actual wtp

economic value of cedar relics in lebanon an application of contingent valuation method for conservation abstract the cedar forests in lebanon give shelter to a rich biodiversity and they constitute important mountainous relic habitats harboring a wide range of endemic rare and threatened species and species with economic potential these forests once covering the eastern and western mountain chains have been the providers of quality timber for the region in historical times the ancient practices have left the country with only 12 forest relics distributed on the mount lebanon chain even though recognized worldwide as flagship species and sites of cultural religious and historical values these forests have attracted limited international funds for their conservation these funds proved not to be sustainable for long term conservation plans therefore a system for securing local funds for the protection of cedar forest is needed in this context this research study was designed having three main objectives which are firstly to illustrate the differences in the value of cedar forests between citizens and villagers users and non users secondly to identify the best ways to collect local funds and design other tools involving for example public participation needed in setting out a sound strategy for the conservation of the cedar forests thirdly to use the findings of this study as a tool to investigate in further studies and to inform and influence decision makers about the importance of a long term conservation and sustainable use program as well as to consider a strategic approach for its sustainable use using an open ended questionnaire contingent valuation method is applied to highlight the importance of well informed population to obtain the willingness to pay wtp for a scenario to conserve cedar forests in lebanon to increase their surface areas to promote sustainable activities and to explore the degree of importance of their attributes and of the option bequest and existence values as perceived by the lebanese population the wtp is tested by using a regression model relating wtp to all socio demographic variables the questionnaires 416 were performed in three main cities in lebanon and in villages surrounding two nature reserves the difference in the individual wtp value for users and non users was approximately us 20 per household for both villagers and city dwellers the frequency of the zero wtp value was higher for non users the results obtained encouraged a national initiative to create a national trust fund and to integrate symbolic fees on the amenity services associated with cedar forests

valuing public goods discrete versus continuous contingent valuation responses independent applications of open ended and dichotomous choice formats are compared using tests of means estimating joint likelihood functions and nonparametric tests of distributions the null hypothesis of no difference in the open ended and dichotomous choice estimates of central tendency cannot be rejected for two out of three data sets while estimated standard deviations are significantly different for all three data sets in addition actual dichotomous choice means and standard deviations exceed those from comparable synthetic dichotomous choice data sets suggesting either open ended questions underestimate values or dichotomous choice bid structures may lead to systematic overestimates

bias in discrete response contingent valuation abstract the empirical literature on discrete response contingent valuation has found that seemingly innocuous changes in the statistical models estimated result in significantly different point estimates of willingness to pay this paper hypothesizes and tests several potential explanations for these results first it investigates and compares the biases inherent in single bounded and double bounded maximum likelihood estimation procedures and examines how they react to various bid designs and sample sizes then it examines the presence and identification of outliers in binary choice data and how these outliers influence estimation finally it presents an alternative approach to addressing the issue of outliers which explicitly acknowledges the possibility of upwardly biased response probabilities

comparing continuous and discrete contingent valuation questions this paper explores two commonly used methods to elicit an individual s willingness to pay wtp for a public good in contingent valuation studies currently the most preferred method is the take it or leave valuation question or discrete valuation question dvq where the respondent accepts or rejects a suggested cost for the good the traditional method the continuous valuation question cvq simply asks an individual to state his wtp for the suggested change in the provision of a public good like cleaner air we introduce a simple way to compare the results from these two methods we also test the anchoring behavior suggested in the psychological literature on choice under uncertainty the results do not support the anchoring hypothesis but suggest the hypothesis that people perceive the two tested valuation questions differently

unemployment disequilibrium and the short run phillips curve an econometric approach the paper specifies a disequilibrium model for the aggregate labour market consisting of demand and supply functions for labour an adjustment equation for wages as well as for prices a transactions equation and finally an equation that relates measured unemployment to vacancies and to excess demand the model has a more sophisticated treatment of dynamics than earlier disequilibrium models the parameter estimates and the goodness of fit are satisfactory and the model s implications for the behaviour of several important variables are sensible in particular excess demand estimates computed in various ways are reasonable

information bias in contingent valuation effects of personal relevance quality of information and motivational orientation abstract a laboratory experiment examined the potential for information bias in contingent valuation cv consistent with the view that information about a public or private good can function as a persuasive communication willingness to pay wtp was found to increase with the quality of arguments used to describe the good especially under conditions of high personal relevance under low personal relevance wtp for a public but not for a private good was higher when an altruistic as opposed to an individualistic orientation was activated it is concluded that the nature of the information provided in cv surveys can profoundly affect wtp estimates and that subtle contextual cues can seriously bias these estimates under conditions of low personal relevance

family background and economic status in finland the importance of family background for economic outcomes is analyzed using a finnish data set the estimates for intergenerational and sibling correlations in earnings are comparatively low by estimating the magnitude of family influence conditional on parental earnings children with poor parents are found to have lower intergenerational elasticities while the sibling resemblance is higher children with rich parents have higher intergenerational elasticities and the sibling resemblance is also higher except for daughters the results also indicate that the largest share of the intergenerational correlation is transmitted through observed characteristics such as education and in particular occupation jel classification d1 d3 j6