SEQUENCING AND NESTING IN CONTINGENT VALUATION SURVEYS

The term ''embedding'' is ill-defined and has been applied to distinct phenomena, some predicted by economic theory and others not. This pap er lays out a theoretical framework for looking at these phenomena and provides a set of well-defined terms. Included is a discussion of sur vey design problems which may induce spurious evidence in favor of the hypothesis that respondents are insensitive to the scope of the good being valued. An empirical example of the component sensitivity is pro vided. This test rejects the hypothesis that respondents are insensiti ve to the scope of the good being valued. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc .