Elina Lampi

Paying for Mitigation: A Multiple Country Study

A contingent valuation study conducted in China, Sweden, and the United States was used to investigate citizens’ willingness to pay (WTP) for reducing CO2 emissions. We find that a majority of the respondents in all three countries believe that the mean global temperature has increased over the last 100 years and that humans are responsible for the increase. The share of Americans that believes these statements is smaller, and a relatively larger share of Americans also believes that nothing can be done to stop climate change. Sweden has the highest WTP, while China has the lowest. (JEL Q51, Q54)

Who Visits the Museums? A Comparison between Stated Preferences and Observed Effects of Entrance Fees

This study investigates whether the introduction of an entrance fee affects visitor composition at a state funded museum in Sweden. While entrance to the museum was still free, we conducted a survey to collect information about visitor characteristics and used the Contingent Valuation (CV) method to measure visitors’ willingness to pay (WTP) for a visit. The results of the CV survey show that even a very low entrance fee level results in a significant reduction in several target groups that the museum has policy directives to reach. Additionally, we conducted another survey after the introduction of the fee. Thus, we have a unique opportunity to test the validity of CV in the context of a cultural good. The comparison between the predicted results from the CV and the observed change in visitor composition after the introduction of the fee implies that CV does predict a majority of the changes successfully.

Do EPA Administrators Recommend Environmental Policies That Citizens Want

We investigate whether Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator recommendations regarding improvements in environmental quality differ from citizen preferences. This is done by conducting identical choice experiments on both citizens and administrators at the EPA. The administrators were asked to choose the alternatives they would recommend as a policy, while the citizens were asked to act as private persons. We find that the rankings of attributes differ between the two groups and that the willingness to pay (WTP) obtained from the choices made by the administrators is higher for five out of the seven attributes, and in some cases the difference between the WTPs is substantial. (JEL D61, Q58)

What do friends and the media tell us? How different information channels affect women’s risk perceptions of age‐related female infertility

This paper investigates through which channels women receive information about the general risk levels of age‐related female infertility and how the different channels affect women’s perceptions of the risk. We find that the media reaches women of all ages, while only about one woman in four has received information from the health care system. We also find that friends and relatives are an important source of information that affects women’s risk perceptions. However, the information from friends and relatives seems to generally make female recipients more likely to overestimate the risks. We conclude that the information sources have different, sometimes even opposite, impacts on the risk perceptions, possibly making it harder for a woman to be aware of the true general risks of age‐related infertility.

Nature and nurture: the relation between number of siblings and earnings

In this study, we examine the relation between different kinds of siblings and earnings and find that both nature and nurture matter: full-siblings are equally negatively related to earnings regardless of whether one grew up with them or not. The number of step-siblings, on the other hand, also turns out significant if one grew up together.

Who Can Be Trusted to Manage the Fish? A Study Comparing Trust between Stakeholders

This paper investigates trust among stakeholders in fisheries management. We asked the general public, environmental bureaucrats, and recreational and commercial fishers whether they believed the other stakeholders have sufficient knowledge to have an opinion regarding fisheries management issues in a choice experiment they themselves had just been exposed to. We found that the general public and recreational fishers tend to trust bureaucrats, while bureaucrats distrust the general public. The commercial fishers deviate from the others with a high level of trust in own knowledge and low trust in all other stakeholders. The implications of low trust among stakeholders in fisheries are discussed. (JEL Q22)