D. Green et al., REFERENDUM CONTINGENT VALUATION, ANCHORING, AND WILLINGNESS-TO-PAY FOR PUBLIC-GOODS, Resource and energy economics, 20(2), 1998, pp. 85-116
This study reports on experiments that examine anchoring in single ref
erendum questions in contingent valuation surveys on willingness to pa
y for public goods, and on objective estimation. Strong anchoring effe
cts are found that lead to systematically higher estimated mean respon
ses from Yes/No referendum responses than from open-ended responses. T
his response pattern is similar for contingent valuation questions and
for objective estimation questions. The paper concludes that psychome
tric anchoring effects, rather than incentive effects, are the likely
cause of results commonly found in contingent valuation studies, and t
hat the currently popular single referendum elicitation format is high
ly vulnerable to anchoring. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.