2002 World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists

Designers of stated preference studies have placed an emphasis on ensuring that all ‘hypothetical’ elements in questionnaires are removed. A potential problem with this emphasis is that it can unwittingly increase the hypothetical nature of the survey and necessitate use of ethically questionable statements. An alternative approach is to admit the existence of hypothetical elements. If what is told to respondents is congruent with their beliefs, this may reduce bias. Critics, however, might argue that revealing the goal of a stated preference study (ie that it is a hypothetical survey designed to identify value estimates) would lead to strategic behavior. The purpose of this paper is to test the validity of this potential criticism. The results of a split sample test are presented. Strategic behavior was anticipated by three different interest groups. Evidence of strategic behaviour by only one group was identified, but this behavior was not sufficient to affect value estimates.



	Paper Title:	Does Revealing The Goal Of A Stated Preference Study Lead To Strategic Behavior?
	Presenting Author:	Mark Morrison (Georgia State University)
	Coauthor 1:
	Coauthor 2:
	Coauthor 3:
	Abstract:	Designers of stated preference studies have placed an emphasis on ensuring that all ‘hypothetical’ elements in questionnaires are removed. A potential problem with this emphasis is that it can unwittingly increase the hypothetical nature of the survey and necessitate use of ethically questionable statements. An alternative approach is to admit the existence of hypothetical elements. If what is told to respondents is congruent with their beliefs, this may reduce bias. Critics, however, might argue that revealing the goal of a stated preference study (ie that it is a hypothetical survey designed to identify value estimates) would lead to strategic behavior. The purpose of this paper is to test the validity of this potential criticism. The results of a split sample test are presented. Strategic behavior was anticipated by three different interest groups. Evidence of strategic behaviour by only one group was identified, but this behavior was not sufficient to affect value estimates.
	Link to paper:	http://weber.ucsd.edu/~carsonvs/papers/81.doc

	Session / Day / Time	15H / Thursday / 10:15 - 11:45 am

	Please use your browser's "back" button to get to the previous page.