SENSITIVITY OF CONTINGENT VALUATION TO ALTERNATIVE PAYMENT SCHEDULES

Insensitivity to payment schedule, wherein respondents do not adequate ly differentiate between a one-time payment and a series of payments m ay be an important but often overlooked factor in the design, interpre tation, and use of contingent valuation studies. Several contingent va luation experiments involving a familiar private good and a less famil iar environmental commodity indicate that although respondents disting uished between lump sum and periodic payment schedules, implicit disco unt rates were very high, suggesting that sensitivity to payment sched ule is an important subject for further study.