PART-WHOLE BIAS IN CONTINGENT VALUATION - WILL SCOPE EFFECTS BE DETECTED WITH INEXPENSIVE SURVEY METHODS

The purpose of this paper is to test for scope effects with the contin gent valuation method. We use data from a telephone survey focusing on water quality improvements in the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds in Nor th Carolina. We find that the willingness to pap estimates are sensiti ve to the scope of the policy. These results suggest that the use of i nexpensive survey methods may not be the cause of the failure to detec t scope effects in some recent contingent valuation studies.