Testing the single opt-out reminder in choice experiments: An application to fuel break management in Spain
Elsa Varela, Sustainable Forest Management Research Institute, INIA-CIFOR & School of Agricultural Engineering of the University of Valladolid, Spain AND European Forest Institute, Mediterranean Regional Office, EFIMED, Spain, elsa.varela.r@gmail.com
, Pierre-Alexandre Mahieu, LEMNA, University of Nantes, France, Marek Giergiczny, Department of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, Poland, Pere Riera, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Institut de Ciencia i Tecnologia Ambientals, Spain, Mario Soliño, Sustainable Forest Management Research Institute, INIA-CIFOR & School of Agricultural Engineering of the University of Valladolid, Spain AND National Institute for Agriculture and Food Research and Technology (INIA), Forest Research Centre (CIFOR), Spain
Suggested Citation
Elsa Varela, Pierre-Alexandre Mahieu, Marek Giergiczny, Pere Riera and Mario Soliño (2014), "Testing the single opt-out reminder in choice experiments: An application to fuel break management in Spain", Journal of Forest Economics: Vol. 20: No. 3, pp 212-222. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfe.2014.05.001
Cheap talk (CT) scripts have been broadly tested in contingent valuation studies to mitigate the effects of hypothetical bias. However, this approach may not fully be adequate when the individual is faced with several choices such as in discrete choice experiments (DCE) because the respondent may tend to forget about the CT script. This paper tests the effects of a single opt-out reminder (SOOR) to lower the hypothetical bias in a DCE dealing with the valuation of social preferences for forest fire prevention programs in Southern Spain. Results show that the inclusion of a SOOR does not contribute sufficiently to improve the CT effect on the DCE data.