New publication in Bio-based and Applied Economics

This paper explores the potential usefulness and possible pitfalls of using integrated choice and latent variable models (hybrid choice models) on stated choice data to inform policy. Using a series of Monte-Carlo simulations, we consider how model selection depends on the strength of relationship between the latent variable and preferences and the strength of relationship between the latent variable and the indicator. Our findings show that integrated choice and latent variable models are difficult to estimate, even when the data generating process is known.

October 15, 2020 Read
New publication in PLoS ONE

We report and interpret preferences of a sample of the Dutch adult population for different strategies to end the so-called ‘intelligent lockdown’ which their government had put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a discrete choice experiment, we invited participants to make a series of choices between policy scenarios aimed at relaxing the lockdown, which were specified not in terms of their nature (e.g. whether or not to allow schools to re-open) but in terms of their effects along seven dimensions.

September 16, 2020 Read
New publication in Environmental and Resource Economics

The growth in global aquaculture production may address the lack of sustainability in wild fisheries, alleviate poverty in rural and coastal areas, and help meet the worldwide increase in demand for animal protein. However, there is an ongoing debate about the severity of the environmental impact of aquaculture production. Investing in new high-tech production systems can address both productivity growth and the environmental externalities, but high investment costs hinder adoption of high-tech production methods.

August 4, 2020 Read
New publication in Resource and Energy Economics

Internet panels are increasingly used for stated preference research. Because members of such panels receive compensation for each completed survey, one concern is that over time this creates professional respondents who answer surveys solely for the monetary compensation. We identify professional respondents using data on panel tenure, survey response frequency, completion rate and total number of completed surveys. We find evidence of two types of professional respondents: “hyperactives” who answer surveys frequently and “experienced” who have long panel tenure and a large number of completed surveys.

May 31, 2020 Read
New publication in Conservation Biology

There is increasing pressure to use currently untapped resources in the deep sea, raising questions regarding ecosystem service trade‐offs in these often unknown areas. We assessed the trade‐offs between protection of cold‐water coral reefs and economic activities, such as fisheries and petroleum extraction, through a survey of a representative sample of the populations of Norway and Ireland. Choice‐experiment surveys were conducted in workshop settings and through the internet. Both survey approaches provided some similar results, such as preferences for protection.

August 16, 2019 Read
New publication in Environmental and Resource Economics

Stated preference practitioners are increasingly relying on internet panels to gather data, but emerging evidence suggests potential limitations with respect to respondent and response quality in such panels. We identify groups of inattentive respondents who have failed to watch information videos provided in the survey to completion. Our results show that inattentive respondents have a higher cost sensitivity, are more likely to have a small scale parameter, and are more likely to ignore the non-cost attributes.

October 25, 2018 Read
New publication in European Review of Agricultural Economics

Accumulating evidence suggests that respondents in stated choice experiments use simplifying strategies. Such behaviour is a deviation from random utility theory and can lead to wrong inferences regarding preferences. This is a first attempt to systematically explore satisficing in stated choice experiments. We consider 944 satisficing rules and allow respondents to revise the rules adopted throughout the choice sequence. Only a minority of respondents used the same satisficing rule across the entire sequence.

July 20, 2018 Read
New publication in Energy Economics

In this paper, we report on a discrete choice experiment aimed at eliciting Swedish households’ willingness-to-accept a compensation for restrictions on household electricity and heating use during peak hours. When analyzing data from discrete choice experiments it is typically assumed that people make rational utility maximizing decisions, i.e., that they consider all of the attribute information and compare all alternatives. However, mounting evidence shows that people use a wide range of simplifying strategies that are inconsistent with utility maximization.

May 8, 2018 Read
New publication in Journal of Choice Modeling

When analyzing discrete choice data we assume that respondents compare alternatives and make a utility maximizing choice. The majority of DCEs use a matrix display with one row per attribute and one column per alternative. A comparison by alternatives implies that respondents process the choice task column-by-column. However, evidence from psychology and judgment and decision making research suggest that learned reading patterns dominate and as such the standard matrix display might induce processing by attributes rather than alternatives.

February 17, 2018 Read
New publication in Ocean and Coastal Management

It is well-known that operating within the boundaries of a national park provides commercial actors with the opportunity to charge a price premium, though this has to a lesser degree been demonstrated for marine protected areas. We estimate national tourists' willingness-to-pay a price premium for boat trips in the Nha Trang Bay Marine Protected Are, Vietnam, using a discrete choice experiment. Our results show that tourists are willing to pay an average price premium of 18 USD per trip for a large improvement in environmental quality, and that avoiding the loss of jobs for local fishermen is of minor importance.

May 18, 2017 Read
New publication in Journal of Choice Modeling

We seek to disentangle the effect of knowledge about an environmental good on respondents' propensity to ignore one or more attributes on the choice cards in a discrete choice experiment eliciting people’s preferences for increased protection of cold-water corals in Norway. We hypothesize that a respondent’s level of knowledge influences the degree to which she ignores attributes. Respondents participated in a quiz on cold-water coral prior to the valuation task and we use the result of the quiz as an ex-ante measure of their knowledge.

September 6, 2016 Read
New publication in Ecological Economics

We compare two discrete choice experiments eliciting willingness-to-pay (WTP) for increased cold-water coral protection in Norway using valuation workshops and an internet panel survey with videos. The video presentation provides the same visual presentation of information about the good and valuation task as in the valuation workshop. In doing so, we are the first to compare these survey modes. The two survey modes perform equally well with respect to sampling, but the internet survey gives significantly lower WTP estimates.

June 14, 2016 Read