Bid design in dichotomous-choice questions is an issue of considerable concern and debate. This paper investigates the effect of bid structures on welfare estimates using two pretest distributions (from open-ended and dichotomous-choice questions) and three bid structures (two-bid, five-bid, and...

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...