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The Estimation of Indifference Maps by Expected Utility Analysis
Author(s) -
Bennett Jeff,
Smith Ben
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.2307/1241823
Subject(s) - additive function , simple (philosophy) , respondent , function (biology) , value (mathematics) , estimation , econometrics , degree (music) , computer science , mathematics , mathematical economics , statistics , economics , mathematical analysis , philosophy , physics , management , epistemology , evolutionary biology , political science , acoustics , law , biology
The indifference curve estimation procedure proposed and used by Sinden to value nonmarketed goods implicitly adopts the assumption that a two‐good utility function can be obtained by the simple addition of two single‐good utility functions. The results of two experiments indicate that using the strict additivity assumption is likely to bias the indifference maps so derived. While an alternative nonadditive technique is proposed, it is found that, as with Sinden's technique, it is subject to such a large degree of respondent inconsistency that doubt is cast on the usefulness of the results obtained and on the practicality of this general approach.