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HOW PEOPLE RESPOND TO CONTINGENT VALUATION QUESTIONS
Description:
The purpose of the project is to understand better how individuals interpret and respond to contingent valuation (CV) questions. The research will address three issues: the reliability of the referendum questions format, the importance of reminding respondents about substitutes, and the sensitivity of CV estimates of the scope of potential natural resource injuries. An interdisciplinary team of economists and psychologists will direct the research. A verbal protocol methodology adapted from the field of cognitive psychology will be used to provide insights into thought processes that lead to observed CV response. These protocols involve the process of respondents "thinking aloud" while they answer the CV questions. This process yields insights on both the decision process that people use to answer questions and the information they use as part of the decision process. Protocols will follow a research design that will enable the results to be useful for both hypothesis testing and developing more general insights about people's response patterns. Surveys will be used to further test the findings of the verbal protocol research.