Effects of the number of alternatives in public good discrete choice experiments

Weng, W; Morrison, MD; Boyle, KJ; Boxall, PC; Rose, J

Effects of the number of alternatives in public good discrete choice experiments

Weng, W Morrison, MD Boyle, KJ Boxall, PC Rose, J

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Publisher:: ELSEVIER
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Ecological Economics, 2021, 182
Issue Date:: 2021-04-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Weng, W
dc.contributor.author	Morrison, MD
dc.contributor.author	Boyle, KJ
dc.contributor.author	Boxall, PC
dc.contributor.author	Rose, J https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4211-0980
dc.date.accessioned	2021-04-23T01:37:23Z
dc.date.available	2021-04-23T01:37:23Z
dc.date.issued	2021-04-01
dc.identifier.citation	Ecological Economics, 2021, 182
dc.identifier.issn	0921-8009
dc.identifier.issn	1873-6106
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/148292
dc.description.abstract	Choice experiments (CEs) are commonly used to estimate monetary values for characteristics of public goods, but there are unresolved design issues. The number of alternatives is one of them. Increasing the number of alternatives increases the potential information learned from a sample of a limited size, which may assist subjects in selecting a preferred alternative (referred as matching) or may make choices more difficult (referred as complexity). A convergent-validity study is conducted to compare CE designs with status quo (SQ) plus one, two or three alternatives. To enhance convergent-validity insights, we use the SQ plus one treatment, which is a theoretically supported treatment, as a counterfactual treatment. We fail to find convergent validity between the one-alternative treatment and the two- and three-alternative treatments. Yet there is little difference in welfare estimates between the two- and three-alternative treatments. We find a net matching effect in the one-alternative treatment as the number of attribute-level changes increases, which reduces the likelihood of choosing the SQ alternative. We find net complexity effects in the two- and three-alternative treatments, which increases the likelihood of subjects choosing the SQ alternative as the number of choice questions increases. Our results support the use of SQ plus one-alternative design, suggest caution when using a SQ plus two- and three-alternative designs.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	ELSEVIER
dc.relation.ispartof	Ecological Economics
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106904
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
dc.subject	0502 Environmental Science and Management, 1402 Applied Economics, 1499 Other Economics
dc.subject.classification	Agricultural Economics & Policy
dc.title	Effects of the number of alternatives in public good discrete choice experiments
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	182
utslib.for	0502 Environmental Science and Management
utslib.for	1402 Applied Economics
utslib.for	1499 Other Economics
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Business
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - BIDA - Business Intelligence and Data Analytics
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access	*
dc.date.updated	2021-04-23T01:37:22Z
pubs.publication-status	Published
pubs.volume	182

Abstract:

Choice experiments (CEs) are commonly used to estimate monetary values for characteristics of public goods, but there are unresolved design issues. The number of alternatives is one of them. Increasing the number of alternatives increases the potential information learned from a sample of a limited size, which may assist subjects in selecting a preferred alternative (referred as matching) or may make choices more difficult (referred as complexity). A convergent-validity study is conducted to compare CE designs with status quo (SQ) plus one, two or three alternatives. To enhance convergent-validity insights, we use the SQ plus one treatment, which is a theoretically supported treatment, as a counterfactual treatment. We fail to find convergent validity between the one-alternative treatment and the two- and three-alternative treatments. Yet there is little difference in welfare estimates between the two- and three-alternative treatments. We find a net matching effect in the one-alternative treatment as the number of attribute-level changes increases, which reduces the likelihood of choosing the SQ alternative. We find net complexity effects in the two- and three-alternative treatments, which increases the likelihood of subjects choosing the SQ alternative as the number of choice questions increases. Our results support the use of SQ plus one-alternative design, suggest caution when using a SQ plus two- and three-alternative designs.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/148292