Testing Willingness to Pay Elicitation Mechanisms in the Field: Evidence from Uganda

Arbeitspapier

Researchers frequently use variants of the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) mechanism to elicit willingness to pay (WTP). These variants involve numerous incentive-irrelevant design choices, some of which carry advantages for implementation but may deteriorate participant comprehension or trust in the mechanism, which are well-known problems with the BDM. We highlight three such features and test them in the field in rural Uganda, a relevant population for many recent applications. Comprehension is very high, and 86 percent of participants bid optimally for an induced-value voucher, with little variation across treatments. This gives confidence for similar applications, and suggests the comprehension-expediency trade-off is mild.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 8904

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Design of Experiments: General ; Field Experiments ; Auctions ; Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
• Subject: willingness to pay ; Becker-DeGroot-Marschak ; field experiment

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Burchardi, Konrad B. ; de Quidt, Jonathan ; Gulesci, Selim ; Lerva, Benedetta ; Tripodi, Stefano
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2021

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/235274
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET