We investigate the importance of the social context for people’s voluntary contributions to a national park in Costa Rica, using a natural field experiment.

Although conventional economic theory proposes that only the absolute levels of income and consumption matter for people’s utility, there is much evidence that relative concerns are often important.

This study employed a choice experiment (CE) to ascertain consumer preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for non-market food product quality attributes. Data were obtained from a large mail survey and estimated with a random parameter logit model.

Data on the burden of disease, costs of illness, and cost-effectiveness of vaccines are needed to facilitate the
use of available anti-typhoid vaccines in developing countries. This one-year prospective surveillance was
carried out in an urban slum community in Delhi, India, to estimate the costs of illness for cases of typhoid
fever. Ninety-eight culture-positive typhoid, 31 culture-positive paratyphoid, and 94 culture-negative cases
with clinical typhoid syndrome were identified during the surveillance. Estimates of costs of illness were

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.