Primarily because of the hypothetical character of interview situations, respondents are often unable to state their true willingness to pay (WTP). This inability results in the so-called hypothetical bias. To address this bias, incentive-compatible methods have been proposed, but such methods...

The somewhat ad-hoc method of certainty calibration, based on self-stated preference certainty follow-up questions, has been found to be a successful method of eliminating or reducing hypothetical bias in stated preference studies. But is the preference certainty really context dependent, or do...

Hypothetical bias is one of the main issues bedeviling the field of nonmarket valuation. The general criticism is that survey responses reflect how people would like to behave, rather than how they actually behave. In our study of climate change and emissions reductions, we took advantage of the...

Hypothetical bias is one of the main issues bedeviling the field of nonmarket valuation. The general criticism is that survey responses reflect how people would like to behave, rather than how they actually behave. In our study of climate change and emissions reductions, we took advantage of the...

Over recent years there has been renewed interest in cost-benefit analysis (CBA) in health care but the ‘hypothetical bias’ concern (i.e. the belief that WTP values overstate real preferences) is a remaining anxiety. This paper reports new empirical data comparing hypothetical and real...