Public recognition is usually thought to motivate charitable giving. However, the current research identifies an important context in which the opposite occurs. We examine commonplace donation decisions involving modest amounts of money, which either take place in private, or are observed by...

The authors examine how a reference to an unrelated product in the choice context impacts consumers' likelihood of donating to charity. Building on research on self-signaling, the authors predict that consumers are more likely to give when the donation appeal references a hedonic product, as...

This article introduces an iterative choice procedure for valuing inland water quality. This approach breaks up the valuation into a series of component tasks. The water quality ladder approach is not valid empirically. Consequently, respondents in Colorado and North Carolina assessed the value...

The gap between willingness-to-pay (WTP) and willingness-to-accept (WTA) benefit values typifies situations in which reference points — and direction of movement from reference points — are consequential. Why WTA-WTP discrepancies arise is not well understood. We generalize models of...