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Contingent Valuation and Collective Choice
Author(s) -
Schläpfer Felix,
Hanley Nick
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
kyklos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.766
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1467-6435
pISSN - 0023-5962
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6435.2006.00323.x
Subject(s) - referendum , willingness to pay , contingent valuation , voting , economics , nonmarket forces , valuation (finance) , actuarial science , context (archaeology) , public economics , microeconomics , politics , finance , political science , geography , archaeology , factor market , law
SUMMARY Contingent valuation (CV) is a widely used but controversial survey‐based technique for estimating the nonmarket benefits of environmental goods and services. This study is the first to compare the outcome of a self‐contained CV survey with the outcome of a collective decision, by contrasting hypothetical willingness to pay with willingness to pay inferred from aggregate voting returns and tax liability distributions. The empirical dataset is from a CV survey and a referendum on a proposition to increase financing for landscape and heritage protection in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland. Voting‐based willingness to pay was only a small fraction of stated willingness to pay, indicating an inflation in values due to the hypothetical context.