EXAMINATION OF THE PREDICTIVE-VALIDITY OF CVM USING AN ATTITUDE-BEHAVIOR FRAMEWORK

The contingent valuation method (CVM) has been used to assign monetary value to goods not normally bought and sold in the marketplace. Somet imes this value is used to make inferences about what a person might a ctually be willing to pay. The relationship between responses to willi ngness to pay (WTP) questions and a paying behavior was examined in th is study using a conceptual framework from attitude theory. Willingnes s to pay was considered a behavioral intention to pay, and a mock vote on a sales taw initiative was considered a paying behavior. Two facto rs known to affect the intention-behavior relationship were varied Sub jects were provided different levels of information about the good and were asked about their willingness to pay using different question co ntexts. Increasing the context correspondence between measures of inte ntion and behavior strengthened the relationship. Information did not significantly increase the consistency between intention and behavior. Determining the meaning in behavioral terms of people's responses to WTP questions may be especially important when these responses are tak en at face value.