VARYING LEVELS OF INFORMATION AND THE EMBEDDING PROBLEM IN CONTINGENTVALUATION - THE CASE OF CANADIAN WILDERNESS

This study examines the effect of providing varying amounts of informa tion and embedding to contingent valuation respondents in the context of wilderness reservation. Contingent valuation is a technique develop ed to assess the monetary value of nonmarket goods by asking survey re spondents how much they would be willing to pay (or accept) for an inc rease (or decrease) in the level of provision of such goods. Embedding refers to obtaining willingness-to-pay measures for a good when it is valued as part of a larger good. When subjects were provided with mor e complete information to make evaluations, their willingness-to-pay r esponses were reasonably consistent across levels of embedding. In con trast, when little background information was provided, willingness-to -pay amounts were inconsistent and showed significantly more variabili ty and greater signs of embedding. In addition, low-information subjec ts volunteered more protest zeros and reported feeling slightly less c onfident of their responses. Perhaps the most interesting finding was the difference in mean valuations depending on how much background inf ormation subjects received. This issue of information provision can be a problematic challenge for contingent-valuation practitioners.