Which Response Format Reveals the Truth about
Several contingent valuation studies have found that the open-ended format yields lower estimates of willingness to pay (WTP) than does the closed-ended, or dichotomous choice, format. In this study, WTP for a public environmental good was estimated under four conditions: actual pay- ment in response to open-ended and closed-ended requests, and hypothetical payment in response to open-ended and closed-ended requests. The experi- mental results, showing that the response format mattered far more for hypothetical than for actual payments, support conclusions about the reasons that the dichotomous choice format yields larger estimates of hypothetical WTP, conclusions that hinge on the hypothetical nature of contingent valu- ation. (JEL Q26, D71)
The data provided is all of the raw data presented in each graph contained in all of the figures in the paper. It is all contained in one excel spreadsheet file with a new sheet relating to each figure. The individual image files are also included for the figures that contain images.