Cheap talk is frequently used in contingent valuation surveys in an attempt to mitigate hypothetical bias. This paper aims at investigating in two case studies whether the effects of cheap talk on willingness-to-pay depend on the gender of the participants. Results of the two studies point in...

Over the last few years a great deal of research has focussed on hypothetical bias in value estimates obtained with the contingent valuation (CV) method and on means for ameliorating if not eliminating such bias. To date, efforts to eliminate hypothetical bias have relied on calibration...

We compare two approaches to mitigating hypothetical bias. The study design includes three treatments: an actual payment treatment, a contingent valuation (CV) treatment with a follow-up certainty question, and a CV treatment with a cheap talk script. Our results suggest that both the follow-up...

Stated preference methods using surveys to elicit willingness to pay have been shown to suffer from hypothetical bias and scope/scale bias. Hypothetical bias usually means that willingness to pay is exaggerated in the hypothetical scenario and scope/scale bias means that there is an...

A number of recent papers in environmental economics have focused on the process of researching preferences – agents are uncertain about preferences but with effort may narrow their uncertainty. This issue has arisen in formulating bids in contingent valuation (CV) as well as the debate over...