title: Contingent Valuation of Organic Cotton: An Empirical Investigation into the WTA-WTP Disparity

authors: Powley, Francis Deva

subjects: Contingent Valuation Method

abstract: Contingent valuation is a non-market valuation technique which elicits preference data from participants by asking them to value a change in the provision of a specific good or service, contingent on the specifications outlined in a hypothetical market scenario. A commonly observed feature of CV results is a significant and pervasive disparity that develops between willingness to accept and willingness to pay measures of value. While these two measures should theoretically produce the same value estimate for a particular good, with the exception of a small difference due to the income effect, this is not the case in a majority of the experimental CV literature. This WTA-WTP disparity is the focus of this thesis’ investigation, which aims to offer a more accurate understanding of the phenomenon. This thesis provides a detailed review of past research experiments investigating the WTA-WTP gap, identifying two main alternate explanations for the disparity: one which explains the discrepancy as resulting from flaws in the methodological design of the CV experiments (weak experimental design) and one which suggests the gap is caused the fact that people place a higher value on a good they own than an identical good they do not own (endowment effect theory). To assess the legitimacy of each of these two explanations, this thesis presents an experimental investigation into the WTA-WTP gap, where a basic CV survey is design and then used to elicit preference data from participants for organic cotton. The experimental design includes six CV surveys, all of which are fundamentally identical except for small specific alterations, which will allow valuation results to be compared across survey groups in an attempt to isolate the effect that the specified survey design features have on valuation estimates. Two of the surveys collect WTP and WTA data from participants under a binding condition where the average valuation stated by the group would determine a binding monetary outcome for all of the participants. Two further surveys collect WTP and WTA data from participants where no binding monetary outcome is specified (i.e. purely hypothetical), and the final two treatment groups are asked to estimate the WTP and WTA of the binding groups, rather than provide their own personal value estimates. The core comparisons possible between these survey designs include: assessing whether a WTA-WTP gap is observed even when controlling for features of weak experimental design, assessing how the hypothetical nature of a CV experiment impacts on the valuation results, and whether participants are able to provide an unbiased estimate of others’ preferences. Data was collected from 178 participants with between 27 and 31 respondents involved in each of the six survey groups. The data was then analysed using SPSS to test whether there were significant differences between the valuation estimates collected from the different participant groups. The results of the experiment found that the WTA-WTP gap is caused by the endowment effect rather than weak experimental design, that hypothetical and binding treatments do not differ significantly in terms of valuation estimates, and that participants are able to provide unbiased estimates of others’ preferences, so long as they are not first asked to state their own preferences.

text: Contingent Valuation of Organic Cotton: An Empirical Investigation into the WTA-WTP Disparity Contingent valuation is a non-market valuation technique which elicits preference data from participants by asking them to value a change in the provision of a specific good or service, contingent on the specifications outlined in a hypothetical market scenario. A commonly observed feature of CV results is a significant and pervasive disparity that develops between willingness to accept and willingness to pay measures of value. While these two measures should theoretically produce the same value estimate for a particular good, with the exception of a small difference due to the income effect, this is not the case in a majority of the experimental CV literature. This WTA-WTP disparity is the focus of this thesis’ investigation, which aims to offer a more accurate understanding of the phenomenon. This thesis provides a detailed review of past research experiments investigating the WTA-WTP gap, identifying two main alternate explanations for the disparity: one which explains the discrepancy as resulting from flaws in the methodological design of the CV experiments (weak experimental design) and one which suggests the gap is caused the fact that people place a higher value on a good they own than an identical good they do not own (endowment effect theory). To assess the legitimacy of each of these two explanations, this thesis presents an experimental investigation into the WTA-WTP gap, where a basic CV survey is design and then used to elicit preference data from participants for organic cotton. The experimental design includes six CV surveys, all of which are fundamentally identical except for small specific alterations, which will allow valuation results to be compared across survey groups in an attempt to isolate the effect that the specified survey design features have on valuation estimates. Two of the surveys collect WTP and WTA data from participants under a binding condition where the average valuation stated by the group would determine a binding monetary outcome for all of the participants. Two further surveys collect WTP and WTA data from participants where no binding monetary outcome is specified (i.e. purely hypothetical), and the final two treatment groups are asked to estimate the WTP and WTA of the binding groups, rather than provide their own personal value estimates. The core comparisons possible between these survey designs include: assessing whether a WTA-WTP gap is observed even when controlling for features of weak experimental design, assessing how the hypothetical nature of a CV experiment impacts on the valuation results, and whether participants are able to provide an unbiased estimate of others’ preferences. Data was collected from 178 participants with between 27 and 31 respondents involved in each of the six survey groups. The data was then analysed using SPSS to test whether there were significant differences between the valuation estimates collected from the different participant groups. The results of the experiment found that the WTA-WTP gap is caused by the endowment effect rather than weak experimental design, that hypothetical and binding treatments do not differ significantly in terms of valuation estimates, and that participants are able to provide unbiased estimates of others’ preferences, so long as they are not first asked to state their own preferences.

year: 2011

title: Crying over Spilt Milk: A Critical Assessment of the Ecological Modernisation of New Zealand’s Dairy Industry

authors: Jay, Grace Mairi M.

subjects: ecological modernization

abstract: Ecological modernization theory holds that capitalist economic structures can be transformed to avoid long-term environmental damage, through the introduction of modern environmental technologies and reforming modern institutions. Empirical evidence, drawing on ecological modernization practices in some European and North American contexts, lends support to this view. However, it is not clear yet whether the practices of ecological modernization can be applied with equal success to agricultural industries (such New Zealand's dairy sector), based on farmers as multiple producers. The New Zealand dairy industry faces political and commercial pressure to improve its environmental performance while maintaining commercial competitiveness in a global marketplace. In response to such pressures, the industry's main umbrella organization (Fonterra) has taken steps to improve the environmental management practices of the farmers who supply milk. The New Zealand dairy industry offers an example from which to assess the relevance of economical modernization theory.

text: Crying over Spilt Milk: A Critical Assessment of the Ecological Modernisation of New Zealand’s Dairy Industry Ecological modernization theory holds that capitalist economic structures can be transformed to avoid long-term environmental damage, through the introduction of modern environmental technologies and reforming modern institutions. Empirical evidence, drawing on ecological modernization practices in some European and North American contexts, lends support to this view. However, it is not clear yet whether the practices of ecological modernization can be applied with equal success to agricultural industries (such New Zealand's dairy sector), based on farmers as multiple producers. The New Zealand dairy industry faces political and commercial pressure to improve its environmental performance while maintaining commercial competitiveness in a global marketplace. In response to such pressures, the industry's main umbrella organization (Fonterra) has taken steps to improve the environmental management practices of the farmers who supply milk. The New Zealand dairy industry offers an example from which to assess the relevance of economical modernization theory.

year: 2006

title: Distributed agent-centric system for indigenous data sovereignty

authors: Noovao, Setephano

subjects: holochain

abstract: The sovereignty of indigenous data is a key issue facing indigenous communities. Holochain, a distributed ledger technology, has the potential to address some of the challenges indigenous communities face with respect to data sovereignty. The purpose of this thesis is to critically evaluate the feasibility of using holochain technology to support indigenous data sovereignty. This paper first explores the literature on holochain technology, examining its underlying architecture and features. The research employs a three-phase design science research methodology, conducting an experiment to explore the integration of a decentralized application, holochain, with a prominent cloud service provider. The first phase concentrates on emulating real data-sharing platforms that may utilize data at its disposal, following the principles of indigenous data sovereignty, where a centralized platform could be hosted on a cloud computing service with multiple services in operation. The second phase involves developing a holochain application guided by the principles of indigenous data sovereignty. The final phase seeks to combine the established centralized platform from the first phase with the outcomes of the holochain application from the second phase to experimentally assess whether both technologies can create a data sovereignty solution that aligns with the needs of indigenous data sovereignty. The results of the experiment will provide a solid foundation for understanding the current state of the field and identifying areas where holochain can potentially offer solutions. Furthermore, the results of our research indicate that holochain shows significant promise in tackling the issue of indigenous data sovereignty, although there are considerable limitations that must be addressed and resolved to achieve improved results.

text: Distributed agent-centric system for indigenous data sovereignty The sovereignty of indigenous data is a key issue facing indigenous communities. Holochain, a distributed ledger technology, has the potential to address some of the challenges indigenous communities face with respect to data sovereignty. The purpose of this thesis is to critically evaluate the feasibility of using holochain technology to support indigenous data sovereignty. This paper first explores the literature on holochain technology, examining its underlying architecture and features. The research employs a three-phase design science research methodology, conducting an experiment to explore the integration of a decentralized application, holochain, with a prominent cloud service provider. The first phase concentrates on emulating real data-sharing platforms that may utilize data at its disposal, following the principles of indigenous data sovereignty, where a centralized platform could be hosted on a cloud computing service with multiple services in operation. The second phase involves developing a holochain application guided by the principles of indigenous data sovereignty. The final phase seeks to combine the established centralized platform from the first phase with the outcomes of the holochain application from the second phase to experimentally assess whether both technologies can create a data sovereignty solution that aligns with the needs of indigenous data sovereignty. The results of the experiment will provide a solid foundation for understanding the current state of the field and identifying areas where holochain can potentially offer solutions. Furthermore, the results of our research indicate that holochain shows significant promise in tackling the issue of indigenous data sovereignty, although there are considerable limitations that must be addressed and resolved to achieve improved results.

year: 2024