George L. Peterson

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.

A Review of Logit Models with Implications for Modeling Recreation Choices.

The use of logit models to predict recreation activity and site choice is increasing. This paper summarizes the properties of binomial and multinomial logit models, reviews applications of these mo...

Pricing for efficiency and revenue in public recreation areas.

Microeconomic theory is used to consider issues related to setting a price for the use of publicly provided outdoor recreation. The necessary conditions for pricing recreation to achieve economic e...

A behavioral urban recreation site choice model

Abstract A multinomial logit site choice model (MNL) derived by utility maximization and based on reported travel distance and perceived site attributes was estimated for 21 forest‐related urban recreation sites in Chicago. Reported travel distance was the dominant explanatory variable. Perceived site attributes included stimulating/educational, quiet, safe, and forested. When estimated for subsets of the 21 sites, the coefficient for travel distance remained stable in sign, magnitude, and significance, while coefficients for “quiet” and “forested” changed in sign and significance. This supports the application of travel cost models at the urban scale, but suggests that site choice criteria may be sensitive to variables not included in the study.

A Comparison of the Sentiments and Perceptions of Wilderness Managers and Canoeists in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area

ABSTRACTWilderness managers and summer canoeists were studied in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) to determine whether the two groups differ in their wilderness motivations, attitudes, prefere...

Examination of the predictive validity of CVM using an attitude‐behavior framework

The contingent valuation method (CVM) has been used to assign monetary value to goods not normally bought and sold in the marketplace. Sometimes this value is used to make inferences about what a person might actually be willing to pay. The relationship between responses to willingness to pay (WTP) questions and a paying behavior was examined in this study using a conceptual framework from attitude theory. Willingness to pay was considered a behavioral intention to pay, and a mock vote on a sales tax initiative was considered a paying behavior. Two factors known to affect the intention‐behavior relationship were varied. Subjects were provided different levels of information about the good and were asked about their willingness to pay using different question contexts. Increasing the context correspondence between measures of intention and behavior strengthened the relationship. Information did not significantly increase the consistency between intention and behavior. Determining the meaning in behavioral ...

Judged seriousness of environmental losses: reliability and cause of loss

Public judgments of the seriousness of environmental losses were found to be internally consistent for most respondents, and largely unaffected by attempts to manipulate responses by altering the mix of losses being judged. Both findings enhance confidence in the feasibility of developing reliable rankings of the seriousness of environmental losses to aid resource allocation and damage assessment. In addition, seriousness of loss was found to be sensitive to the cause of the loss, with human-caused environmental losses considered more serious than identical losses caused by natural events. This difference has important implications for assessment of environmental losses.

Paired comparison estimates of willingness to accept versus contingent valuation estimates of willingness to pay

Estimating empirical measures of an individuals willingness to accept that are consistent with conventional economic theory, has proven difficult. The method of paired comparison offers a promising approach to estimate willingness to accept. This method involves having individuals make binary choices between receiving a particular good or a sum of money. Willingness to accept can be inferred from the ranking of dollar amounts and the good of interest. Using the paired comparison approach, mean (median) willingness to accept for a private good is estimated at

Multiple Good Valuation

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Applying a Method of Paired Comparisons to Measure Economic Values for Multiple Goods Sets

52). Contingent valuation estimate of willingness to pay for the same good yields a mean (median) of