Improving Contingent Valuation Methods

最近的联邦立法增加了条件估值(CV)方法在评估未在市场上出售的商品，特别是环境设施方面的重要性。这种方法现在被广泛使用，但受到几个理论和应用问题的影响，这些问题在经济学家中引发了激烈的辩论，并在法庭上引发了广泛的诉讼。这项提案概述了两项旨在改进CV方法的研究，特别是使用资源价值的表示支付意愿(WTP)衡量方法。第一项研究考察了作为简历研究的一部分，应向受访者提供多少信息以及应提供何种信息。第二项研究探索了CV方法和决策科学中常用的多属性效用方法之间的联系。这项研究的核心是这样一种信念，即偏好是建设性的，只有通过对其组成部分的了解，才能确定总的资源价值。通过帮助解决目前CV研究人员面临的这两个令人烦恼的问题，拟议的研究结果将改善评估经济价值的重要方法的防御性。

Recent Federal legislation has increased the importance of the contingent valuation(CV) method for valuing goods, particularly environmental amenities, not sold in markets. The method is now widely used but is subject to several theoretical and applied problems that have led to lively debates among economists as well as extensive litigation in the courts. This proposal outlines two studies designed to improve CV methods and, specifically, the use of expressed willingness to pay(WTP) measures of resource value. The first study examines how much, and what kind of, information should be provided to respondents as part of a CV study. The second study explores linkages between CV methods and the multiattribute utility approaches commonly used in the decision sciences. This study has as its core the belief that preferences are constructive and that determinations of total resource values can arise only through an understanding of the component parts. By helping to resolve these two vexing problems currently facing CV researchers, results of the proposed studies will improve the defensibility of an important approach to estimating economic value.