Efficient Estimation Methods for "Closed-Ended" Contingent Valuation Surveys

Closed-ended contingent valuation surveys can be very useful in the evaluation of nonmarket resources. Respondents merely state whether they would accept or reject a hypothetical threshold amount, either as payment for giving up access to the resource or as a fee for its use. The authors develop a maximum likelihood procedure which exploits the variation in the threshold values to allow direct and separate point estimates of regression-like slope coefficients and error standard deviations (without truncation bias). Their illustration uses data from a survey of recreational fisherman to examine factors which influence individuals' willingness-to-pay. Copyright 1987 by MIT Press.