USING SURVEYS TO VALUE PUBLIC GOODS 

THE CONTINGENT VALUATION METHOD 

Robert Cameron Mitchell 

Richard T. Carson 

Resources for the Future 

1989 

Contents 

1. Forward 

2. Preface 

3. Valuing Public Goods Using the Contingent Valuation Method 

a. The Contingent Valuation Method 

b. Illustrative Scenarios 

c. The Development of the Contingent Valuation Method 

d. This Book 

4. Theoretical Basis of the Contingent Valuation Method 

a. The Basis of Welfare Economics 

b. Choice of Benefit Measures 

c. Willingness-to-Pay versus Willingness-to-Accept Measures 

d. A New Property Rights Approach 

e. Aggregation Issues 

f. The Private Goods and Political Markets Models 

g. The Implications of Theory for Contingent Valuation Scenario Design 

h. Summary and Conclusions 

5. Benefits and Their Measurement 

a. Property Rights to Quasi-Private and Pure Public Goods 

b. The Nature of Benefits 

c. Introducing Uncertainty 

d. Methods of Measuring Benefits 

e. The Advantages of the Contingent Valuation Method 

f. Summary and Conclusions 

6. Variations in Contingent Valuation Scenario Designs 

a. Private Goods markets and Political Markets 

b. Elicitation Methods 

c. Summary and Conclusions 

7. The Methodological Challenge 

a. Survey Research 

b. Contingent Valuation and Conventional Surveys Compared 

c. Sources of Error in Continent Valuation Studies: An Overview 
d. Summary and Conclusions 

8. Will Respondents Answer Honestly? 

a. Theoretical Developments 

b. Experimental Results 

c. Incentive Compatibility in Political Markets 

d. Summary and Conclusions 

9. Strategic Behavior and Contingent Valuation Studies 

a. Expectations for Strategic Behavior in CV Studies 

b. Controlling for Strategic Behavior in CV Studies 

c. Summary and Conclusions 

10. Can Respondents Answer Meaningfully 

a. Hypothetical Data 

b. Can Hypothetical Studies Predict Behavior 

c. Summary and Conclusions 

11. Hypothetical Values and Contingent Valuation Studies 

a. Types of Validity 

b. Content Validity 

c. Criterion Validity 

d. Construct Validity 

e. Summary and Conclusions 

12. Enhancing Reliability 

a. Assessing Reliability 

b. The Survey Instrument and Reliability 

c. The Reliability of CV Sample Estimates 

d. Summary and Conclusion 

13. Measurement Bias 

a. The CV Bias Experiments 

b. Sources of Systematic Error in CV Studies 

c. A Bias Typology 

d. Summary and Conclusions 

14. Sampling and Aggregation Issues 

a. Bias for Sampling Design and Execution Errors 

b. Inference Biases 

c. The Fallacy of Motivational Precision: Measuring Benefit Categories 

and Subcategories 

d. Summary and Conclusions 

15. Conclusion 

a. Promise of Contingent Valuation 

b. Relevance and Quality 

c. Evaluating the Findings of a CV Study 

d. New Applications 

16. Appendix A: Summary of the Content, Form, and Methodologies of Selected 

Contingent Valuation Studies 

17. Appendix B: Survey Instrument for a National Water Benefits Survey 

18. Appendix C: Hypothesis Testing and Experimental Design in Contingent 

Valuation Surveys 
19. List of Tables 

20. List of Figures 

21. Bibliography 

22. Name Index 

23. Subject Index 

The book can be obtain from www.rff.org, www.amazon.com, 

www.barnes&nobles.com, and www.booksamillion.com

Parts of the text can be found online at http://books.google.com 

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=1R75c1UxVE0C&oi=fnd&pg=PR15

&dq=rt+carson&ots=74Qk4dZedp&sig=g0Q77uOihhLLRk0dT-_wVkvWhUo