Individual preferences must be evaluated to take into account the citizens' interests for public decisions. Usually, economists assess individual preferences through market decisions. But more often, public decisions impact goods without market prices. Without a market to refer to, evaluating...

This paper uses a meta-analysis to explore the relationship between hypothetical bias and the price respondents are asked to pay. For public goods, the results clearly indicate a difference in the price elasticity between hypothetical and actual payment conditions. Since the bias increases for...

This paper examines public valuations of mortality risk reductions. We set up a theoretical framework that allows for altruistic preferences, and subsequently test theoretical predictions through the design of a discrete choice experiment. By varying the tax scenario (uniform versus individual...

We adapt the theoretical state-preference model to value nonmarket public goods under individual uncertainty about use, illustrating with an assessment of willingness-to-pay to prevent acid rain lake damage in the northeast. Individual usage uncertainty is modeled via probabilities of...

The past few years have seen a highly charged debate about whether contingent valuation (CV) surveys can provide valid economic measures of people's values for environmental resources. In an effort to appraise the validity of CV measures of economic value, a distinguished panel of social...