What are the consequences of ignoring attributes in choice experiments? Implications for ecosystem service valuation

This paper investigates the sensitivity of choice experiment values 3AL for ecosystem services to ‘attribute non-attendance’. We consider three cases of attendance, namely that people may always, sometimes, or never pay attention to a given attribute in making their choices. This allows a series of models to be estimated which addresses the following questions: To what extent do respondents ignore attributes in choice experiments? What is the impact of alternative strategies for dealing with attribute non-attendance? Can respondents reliably self-report non-attendance? Do respondents partially attend to attributes, and what are the implications of this? Our results show that allowing for the instance of ‘sometimes attending’ to attributes in making choices offers advantages over methods employed thus far in the literature.

[1]  Joffre Swait,et al.  The Akaike Likelihood Ratio Index , 1986, Transp. Sci..

[2]  N. Hanley,et al.  Preferences, information and biodiversity preservation , 1995 .

[3]  Jürgen Meyerhoff,et al.  Stated or inferred attribute non-attendance? A simulation approach , 2013 .

[4]  David A. Hensher,et al.  The implications on willingness to pay of respondents ignoring specific attributes , 2004 .

[5]  Denzil G. Fiebig,et al.  The Generalized Multinomial Logit Model: Accounting for Scale and Coefficient Heterogeneity , 2010, Mark. Sci..

[6]  M. Rekola,et al.  Lexicographic Preferences in Contingent Valuation: A Theoretical Framework with Illustrations , 2003, Land Economics.

[7]  David A. Hensher,et al.  Modelling attribute non-attendance in choice experiments for rural landscape valuation , 2009 .

[8]  Stephane Hess,et al.  It’s not that I don’t care, I just don’t care very much: confounding between attribute non-attendance and taste heterogeneity , 2013 .

[9]  Jordan J. Louviere,et al.  Perceptions versus Objective Measures of Environmental Quality in Combined Revealed and Stated Preference Models of Environmental Valuation , 1997 .

[10]  David A. Hensher,et al.  Non-attendance and dual processing of common-metric attributes in choice analysis: a latent class specification , 2010 .

[11]  David A. Hensher,et al.  Cost thresholds, cut-offs and sensitivities in stated choice analysis: identification and implications , 2011 .

[12]  N. Hanley,et al.  Should all Choices Count? Using the Cut-Offs Approach to Edit Responses in a Choice Experiment , 2009 .

[13]  Fredrik Carlsson,et al.  Dealing with Ignored Attributes in Choice Experiments on Valuation of Sweden’s Environmental Quality Objectives , 2010 .

[14]  Riccardo Scarpa,et al.  Designs with a priori information for nonmarket valuation with choice experiments: A Monte Carlo study , 2007 .

[15]  N. Hanley,et al.  Economic Valuation of the Benefits of Ecosystem Services delivered by the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (Defra Project SFFSD 0702) , 2011 .

[16]  John M. Rose,et al.  Inferring attribute non-attendance from stated choice data: implications for willingness to pay estimates and a warning for stated choice experiment design , 2012 .

[17]  N. Hanley,et al.  Valuing the non-market benefits of wild goose conservation: a comparison of interview and group-based approaches , 2002 .

[18]  Riccardo Scarpa,et al.  Incorporating Discontinuous Preferences into the Analysis of Discrete Choice Experiments , 2008 .

[19]  David A. Hensher,et al.  Monitoring Choice Task Attribute Attendance in Nonmarket Valuation of Multiple Park Management Services: Does It Matter? , 2010, Land Economics.

[20]  Emily Lancsar,et al.  Deleting 'irrational' responses from discrete choice experiments: a case of investigating or imposing preferences? , 2006, Health economics.

[21]  D. Campbell,et al.  Accommodating attribute processing strategies in stated choice analysis: do respondents do what they say they do? , 2009 .

[22]  Richard T. Carson,et al.  A Common Nomenclature for Stated Preference Elicitation Approaches , 2011 .

[23]  D. McFadden,et al.  MIXED MNL MODELS FOR DISCRETE RESPONSE , 2000 .

[24]  Richard T. Carson,et al.  Design of Discrete Choice Experiments: A Discussion of Issues That Matter in Future Applied Research , 2011 .

[25]  Robert E. Wright,et al.  Valuing the diversity of biodiversity , 2006 .

[26]  David A. Hensher,et al.  Non-attendance to attributes in environmental choice analysis: a latent class specification , 2011 .

[27]  David A. Hensher,et al.  Using Conditioning on Observed Choices to Retrieve Individual-Specific Attribute Processing Strategies , 2010 .

[28]  I. Krinsky,et al.  On Approximating the Statistical Properties of Elasticities , 1986 .

[29]  Nick Hanley,et al.  Improving the Process of Valuing Non-Market Benefits: Combining Citizens’ Juries with Choice Modelling , 2006, Land Economics.

[30]  Andrew Daly,et al.  Assuring finite moments for willingness to pay in random coefficient models , 2009 .

[31]  John B. Loomis,et al.  Computational Methods for Measuring the Difference of Empirical Distributions , 2005 .