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Giving Stated Preference Respondents "Time to Think": Results From Four Countries

Publication ,  Journal Article
Cook, J; Jeuland, M; Maskery, B; Whittington, D
Published in: Environmental and Resource Economics
January 1, 2012

Previous studies have found that contingent valuation (CV) respondents who are given overnight to reflect on a CV scenario have 30-40% lower average willingness-to-pay (WTP) than respondents who are interviewed in a single session. This "time to think" (TTT) effect could explain much of the gap between real and hypothetical WTP observed in experimental studies. Yet giving time to think is still rare in binary or multinomial discrete choice studies. We review the literature on increasing survey respondents' opportunities to reflect on their answers and synthesize results from parallel TTT studies on private vaccine demand in four countries. Across all four countries, we find robust and consistent evidence from both raw data and multivariate models for a TTT effect: giving respondents overnight to think reduced the probability that a respondent said he or she would buy the hypothetical vaccines. Average WTP fell approximately 40%. Respondents with time to think were also more certain of their answers, and a majority said they used the opportunity to consult with their spouse or family. We conclude with a discussion of why researchers might be hesitant to adopt the TTT methodology. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Environmental and Resource Economics

DOI

ISSN

0924-6460

Publication Date

January 1, 2012

Volume

51

Issue

4

Start / End Page

473 / 496

Related Subject Headings

  • Agricultural Economics & Policy
  • 3899 Other economics
  • 3801 Applied economics
  • 1499 Other Economics
  • 1402 Applied Economics
  • 0502 Environmental Science and Management
 

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Cook, J., Jeuland, M., Maskery, B., & Whittington, D. (2012). Giving Stated Preference Respondents "Time to Think": Results From Four Countries. Environmental and Resource Economics, 51(4), 473–496. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-011-9508-4
Cook, J., M. Jeuland, B. Maskery, and D. Whittington. “Giving Stated Preference Respondents "Time to Think": Results From Four Countries.” Environmental and Resource Economics 51, no. 4 (January 1, 2012): 473–96. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-011-9508-4.
Cook J, Jeuland M, Maskery B, Whittington D. Giving Stated Preference Respondents "Time to Think": Results From Four Countries. Environmental and Resource Economics. 2012 Jan 1;51(4):473–96.
Cook, J., et al. “Giving Stated Preference Respondents "Time to Think": Results From Four Countries.” Environmental and Resource Economics, vol. 51, no. 4, Jan. 2012, pp. 473–96. Scopus, doi:10.1007/s10640-011-9508-4.
Cook J, Jeuland M, Maskery B, Whittington D. Giving Stated Preference Respondents "Time to Think": Results From Four Countries. Environmental and Resource Economics. 2012 Jan 1;51(4):473–496.
Journal cover image

Published In

Environmental and Resource Economics

DOI

ISSN

0924-6460

Publication Date

January 1, 2012

Volume

51

Issue

4

Start / End Page

473 / 496

Related Subject Headings

  • Agricultural Economics & Policy
  • 3899 Other economics
  • 3801 Applied economics
  • 1499 Other Economics
  • 1402 Applied Economics
  • 0502 Environmental Science and Management