Criticism of contingent valuation (CV) stresses warm glow and free-riding as possible causes for biased willingness to pay figures. We present an empirical framework to study the existence of warm glow and free-riding in hypothetical WTP answers based on a CV survey for the measurement of health-related Red Cross services. Both in conventional double-bounded and spike models we do not find indication of warm glow phenomena and free-riding behaviour. The results are very robust and insensitive to the applied payment vehicles. Theoretical objections against CV do not find sufficient empirical support. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Volume14, Issue3

March 2005

Pages 293-306

Warm glow, free-riding and vehicle neutrality in a health-related contingent valuation study

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Warm glow, free-riding and vehicle neutrality in a health-related contingent valuation study

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