RESOURCE QUALITY INFORMATION AND VALIDITY OF WILLINGNESS-TO-PAY IN CONTINGENT VALUATION

Elicitation of valid statements of contingent value requires survey pa rticipants who are familiar with the environmental resource change. A primary purpose of the contingent market must be to assure familiarity by providing information. Information about resource quality is impor tant when incompletely informed respondents, say nonusers, perceive re source quality which diverges from true quality. Differences in percei ved quality and true quality can be influenced as respondents learn fr om information in the contingent market. By presenting survey particip ants with information about four wetlands of varying qualities we test for information effects in a dichotomous choice contingent market for wetlands allocation. We find that information about quality is a dete rminant of willingness to pay for wetland preservation. Information ab out resource quality presented in contingent markets will result in mo re valid valuations of changes in allocations of environmental resourc es. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.