Namibia is currently in the process of phasing out water subsidies in its government-sponsored irrigation schemes. However, the financial effects on the affected farmers are frequently unclear, and so are the economic effects on society as a whole.

The net back method provides a framework for estimating rough values of irrigation water in situations such as those in Namibian agriculture, where farmers face a number of constraints which are difficult to model explicitly due to the dearth of reliable data.

Previous studies have shown that cost of illness (COI) measures are lower than
the conceptually correct willingness-to-pay (WTP) measure of the economic
benefits of disease prevention. We compare COI with stated preference estimates
of WTP associated with shigellosis in a rural area of China. COI data were
collected through face-to-face interviews at 7 and 14 days after cultureconfirmed
diagnosis. WTP to avoid an episode similar to the one the respondent
just experienced was elicited using a sliding-scale payment card.

The European Union has been relatively cautious about using biotechnology in food production. A label regime combined with the right of individual member states to ban introduction of new genetically modified (GM) strains means thatGMfood products in effect are banned in many countries.

We show how it is possible to empirically test whether a ban can be motivated by reference to potential negative externalities. This is followed up by results from a choice experiment.We cannot reject the hypothesis of equal WTP for a ban and a labeling scheme.

Using a contingent valuation survey, we elicit Swedish households' willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid power outages.

If local communities living adjacent to the elephant see it as a burden, then they cannot be trusted to be its stewards. To assess their valuation of it, a CVM study was conducted for one CAMPFIRE district in Zimbabwe.

Switching costs are costs that customers face when switching from one firm to another. In markets such as the airline market where repeated purchases are common, switching costs may be substantial.

This paper compares consumer preferences for immunocastration versus surgical castration and no castration using willingness- to-pay estimates from a choice experiment.

Results suggest that consumers place a higher value on pork from immunocastrated pigs than pork from surgically castrated pigs. In contrast, consumers reveal negative valuations of pork from intact boars as compared to pork from surgical castrates. We also show how a binary heteroskedastic logit model can be used to accommodate a larger variance for later choice sets within a choice experiment.

In two experiments on the choice of consumer goods, the estimated marginal willingness to pay for food is found to be lower in the survey version with cheap talk.

Our test can be seen as a test of hypothetical bias. This implies that we cannot reject the hypothesis of a hypothetical bias for marginal WTP in choice experiments.

Co-authors:

Peter Frykblom and Carl Johan Lagerkvist

This paper reports the results of a stated preference survey in the highlands of Ethiopia where the farmers are given a choice between an agricultural extension package and a local public - representing two major developing strategies. The study finds that a majority of people prefers the public good.

Individuals’ preferences for risk and inequality are measured through choices between imagined societies and lotteries.