Testing the Sensitivity of Stated Environmental Preferences to Variations in Choice Architecture

We conducted a three-way split sample discrete choice experiment (DCE) to investigate welfare estimates for attributes related to the management of coastal cod stocks in Arctic Norway. The base DCE design has three core attributes: (1) spawning biomass as an indicator of the sustainability of the cod stocks, (2) stricter regulations on primary user groups (commercial fishers, local recreational anglers, the marine fishing tourism industry), and (3) annual household cost. Two experimentally varied DCE designs include a fourth attribute that explicitly describes the expansion of the marine fishing tourism industry in the region. Perfectly correlated attribute translations serve as an instrument for testing a choice architecture, value activation framework recently proposed in the management science literature. Results from mixed logit estimation indicate that the mean welfare estimates associated with sustainable management of the coastal cod stocks are statistically indistinguishable across DCE versions, while preferences for specific regulatory configurations are design-dependent. Regression analyses of conditional willingness-to-pay estimates and respondents’ propensity to choose the status quo option uncover further choice architecture impacts and provide mixed evidence of value activation. Our overall conclusion is that DCE researchers should recognize their role as choice architects when offering public resource managers and policymakers advice