Eliciting Consumers Preferences Using Stated Preference Discrete Choice Models : Contingent Ranking Versus Choice Experiment

The aim of this paper is twofold: firstly, to carry out a theoretical review of the most recent stated preference techniques used for eliciting consumers preferences and, secondly, to compare the empirical results of two different stated preference discrete choice approaches. They differ in the measurement scale for the dependent variable and, therefore, in the estimation method, despite both using a multinomial logit. One of the approaches uses a complete ranking of full-profiles (contingent ranking), that is, individuals must rank a set of alternatives from the most to the least preferred, and the other uses a first-choice rule in which individuals must select the most preferred option from a choice set (choice experiment). From the results we realize how important the measurement scale for the dependent variable becomes and, to what extent, procedure invariance is satisfied