Johannesson et al.(1996) conjecture that in a coercive, uniform tax setting like dichotomous choice contingent valuation, willingness to pay for public programs would be affected by altruistic consideration of the costs imposed on others. Using a voting-BDM elicitation mechanism, we demonstrate...

Through a combination of experimental and field analysis, we demonstrate that varying the visible choice set (i.e., set of goods which, at any given point in a valuation exercise, the respondent perceives as being the full extent of purchase options which will be made available in the course of...

This paper develops a statistically unbiased and simple method for measuring the difference of independent empirical distributions estimated by bootstrapping or other simulation approaches. This complete combinatorial method is compared with other unbiased and biased methods that have been...

Public referenda are frequently used to determine the provision of public goods. As public programs have distributional consequences, a compelling question is what role if any social preferences have on voting behavior. This paper explores this issue using laboratory experiments wherein voting...

In 1996 Johannesson et al. published a paper in this journal entitled “The Value of Private Safety versus the Value of Public Safety.” Based on preliminary evidence from a hypothetical contingent valuation study, these authors argue that consumers behave as “pure altruists” and reject...

In this working paper we demonstrate that some of the statistical tests used by Huang and Smith in a recent Land Economics article (74(2 1998): 186-202) were erroneous, and raise concerns about their corresponding conclusions. Specifically, using data from one of the studies that they showcase,...

Two methods for calibrating discrete choice contingent valuation responses – the dichotomous choice with followup certainty question method of Champ et al. (1997) and the multiple bounded method of Welsh and Poe (1998) – are evaluated using data from a field validity comparison of...