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This paper reports the results of a stated preference survey of regular transit users’ willingness to ride and concerns about driverless buses in the Philadelphia region. As automated technologies advance, driverless buses may offer significant efficiency, safety, and operational improvements over traditional bus services. However, unfamiliarity with automated vehicle technology may challenge its acceptance among the general public and slow the adoption of new technologies. Using a mixed logit modeling framework, this research examines which types of transit users are most willing to ride in driverless buses and whether having a transit employee on board to monitor the vehicle operations and/or provide customer service matters. Of the 891 surveyed members of University of Pennsylvania’s transit pass benefit program, two-thirds express a willingness to ride in a driverless bus when a transit employee is on board to monitor vehicle operations and provide customer service. By contrast, only 13% would agree to ride a bus without an employee on board. Males and those in younger age groups (18–34) are more willing to ride in driverless buses than females and those in older age groups. Findings suggest that, so long as a transit employee is onboard, many transit passengers will willingly board early generation automated buses. An abrupt shift to buses without employees on board, by contrast, will likely alienate many transit users.

Understanding how the value of environmental goods and services is influenced by their location relative to where people live can help identify the economically optimal spatial distribution of conservation interventions across landscapes. However, capturing these spatial relationships within the confines of a stated preference study has proved challenging. We propose and implement a novel approach to incorporating space within the design and presentation of stated preference choice experiments (CE). Using an investigation of preferences concerning land use change in Great Britain, CE scenarios are presented through individually generated maps, tailored to each respondent’s home location. Each choice situation is generated in real time and is underpinned by spatially tailored experimental designs that reflect current British land uses and incorporate locational attributes relating to physical and administrative dimensions of space. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first CE study to integrate space into both the survey design and presentation of choice tasks in this way. Presented methodology provides means for testing how presentation of spatial information influence stated preferences. We contrast our spatially explicit (mapped) approach with a commonly applied tabular CE approach finding that the former exhibits a number of desirable characteristics relative to the latter.

Stated preference studies are often based on the assumptions that proposed outcomes would realize with certainty and respondents believe their survey responses are consequential. This paper uses split sample treatments to test whether survey consequentiality and outcome uncertainty lead to differences in welfare measures, focusing on a discrete choice experiment on improving quality of electricity supply among business enterprises in Tanzania. Our results show that incorporating uncertainty not only affects the preferences for the attribute with uncertainty (duration of power outage) but also for a choice attribute with a precautionary feature (advanced outage notification). While outcome uncertainty and an additional survey script (a formal letter from a state-owned electric utility) to strengthen consequentiality have some influence on preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) estimates for certain attributes, we do not find significant implications on overall welfare estimates.

Stated preference (SP) methods are increasingly being applied to HIV-related research and continuously provide researchers with health utility scores of select healthcare products or services that populations consider important. Following PRISMA guidelines, we sought to understand how SP methods have been applied in HIV-related research. We conducted a systematic review to identify studies meeting the following criteria: SP method is clearly stated, conducted in the United States, was published between 01/01/2012 and 02/12/2022, and included adults aged 18 and over. Study design and SP method application were also examined. We identified six SP methods (e.g., Conjoint Analysis, Discrete Choice Experiment) across 18 studies, which were categorized into one of two groups: HIV prevention and HIV treatment-care. Categories of attributes used in SP methods largely focused on: administration, physical/health effects, financial, location, access, and external influences. SP methods are innovative tools capable of informing researchers on what populations consider most beneficial when deciding on treatment, care, or prevention options for HIV.

We estimate the economic benefits of avoiding reductions in drinking water quality due to sea level rise accruing to North Carolina (NC) coastal tourists. Using stated preference methods and responses from recent coastal visitors, we find that tourists are 2%, 8%, and 11% less likely to take an overnight trip if drinking water tastes slightly, moderately, or very salty at their chosen destination. The majority of those who decline a trip would take a trip to another NC beach without water quality issues, others would take another type of recreational trip, with a minority opting to stay home. Willingness to pay for an overnight beach trip declines with the salty taste of drinking water. We find evidence of attribute non‐attendance in the stated preference data, which impacts the regression model and estimates of the willingness to pay for trips. Combining economic and hydrological models, annual aggregate benefit losses due to low drinking water quality could be as high as$232 million by 2040. Key Points We estimate the benefits to North Carolina coastal tourists of avoiding reductions in drinking water quality due to sea level rise Willingness to pay for an overnight beach trip declines with the salty taste of drinking water Annual aggregate benefit losses due to low drinking water quality could be as high as $ 232 million in 2040

The adding-up test, which requires that the value of a bundle of goods or services be equal to the sum of the values of its component parts, has been proposed as a validity criterion for stated-preference studies. Though rooted in accepted theory, this proposal raises practical issues that need to be resolved before it is ready for implementation. It requires assumptions about preferences beyond those required for other validity tests such as the scope test. Surveys to implement adding up also increase respondent burden and may compromise consequentiality. These and other issues are reviewed and research strategies to address them are considered.

The outcome of a conservation policy is often subject to uncertainty. In stated preference valuation, it is increasingly recognised that uncertainty affects preferences for the outcomes of environmental policies. However, there is also agreement that the effect of uncertainty and people’s attitudes towards risk need to be better understood. To shed more light on the impact of risk, we designed a discrete choice experiment to compare preferences for environmental outcomes under climate change across two split samples. Each sample was confronted with a scenario where results were presented as certain or uncertain, but were otherwise associated with the same expected values. We found significant differences between the certain and the uncertain treatment, with uncertain outcomes being associated with more extreme utility levels and willingness to pay, in absolute terms. This finding was confirmed irrespective of whether gains or losses were considered and despite sensitivity to uncertainty—specific to the socio-demographic profile. Our results suggest that individuals are not risk neutral in the presence of uncertainty around environmental outcomes. These findings are crucial to better understand stated preferences for conservation policies in risky contexts. Our results reinforce the idea that uncertainty should be explicitly incorporated in the design of stated preference studies to better inform policy.

Transdisciplinary projects can uncover crucial insights on people’s past and future risk-mitigation behavior. We focus on a novel risk context: increasing health threats from ticks on Staten Island, a New York City borough where the combination of high population density and extensive park systems and green spaces has resulted in a rise in locally-acquired tick-transmitted disease cases. We administered a knowledge, attitudes, and practices survey that additionally included simple economic stated preference questions about people’s willingness to spray tick pesticides in the future. We first analyze factors that are correlated with people’s perceptions of two types of risks: exposure to ticks and infection with Lyme disease. Next, we use the nonmarket valuation questions to test people’s willingness to spray and pay as a function of attributes of the hypothetical pesticides, including cost, effectiveness, and type. Across all model specifications, overall willingness to pay (WTP) to spray increases with increases in pesticide effectiveness, as well as with favorable pesticide type (organic). We uncover threshold pesticide effectiveness levels at which WTP to spray turns positive, and we find that lower pesticide effectiveness is required for organic pesticide. Finally, we test how perceived risks and various individual-specific characteristics correlate with WTP to spray. Combinations of higher perceived risks are linked both with higher WTP and lower breakeven pesticide effectiveness. Our work shows that a broad range of variables influence demand for self-protection actions, both directly and indirectly (through their effects on perceived risks). Such insights on people’s tradeoffs carry important policy implications, but they can be missed if economic information is either not elicited or elicited alone.

In the US, the rise in motorized vehicle travel has contributed to serious societal, environmental, economic, and public health problems. These problems have increased the interest in encouraging non-motorized modes of travel (walking and bicycling). The current study contributes toward this objective by identifying and evaluating the importance of attributes influencing bicyclists’ route choice preferences. Specifically, the paper examines a comprehensive set of attributes that influence bicycle route choice, including: (1) bicyclists’ characteristics, (2) on-street parking, (3) bicycle facility type and amenities, (4) roadway physical characteristics, (5) roadway functional characteristics, and (6) roadway operational characteristics. The data used in the analysis is drawn from a web-based stated preference survey of Texas bicyclists. The results of the study emphasize the importance of a comprehensive evaluation of both route-related attributes and bicyclists’ demographics in bicycle route choice decisions. The empirical results indicate that travel time (for commuters) and motorized traffic volume are the most important attributes in bicycle route choice. Other route attributes with a high impact include number of stop signs, red light, and cross-streets, speed limits, on-street parking characteristics, and whether there exists a continuous bicycle facility on the route.

The increased use of renewable energy is imperative as a countermeasure to climate change. As with conventional electricity generation technologies, public acceptance of renewables is an important issue, and willingness to pay (WTP) is a widely used indicator to assess such public attitudes. Unfortunately, the literature to date mostly covers developed countries, with few WTP surveys in developing countries. Tackling climate change is an urgent issue for these developing countries; therefore, understanding of public attitudes toward renewables in developing countries is crucial. This study conducted the first survey on WTP for introducing renewable energy in Myanmar. Although Myanmar boasts abundant renewable energy resources, including solar power and biomass in addition to large-scale hydro plants, its resources are not being properly utilized to generate electricity. This study surveyed WTP for power generation by solar photovoltaics, small hydropower, and biomass facilities. The results showed the highest WTP for solar power (USD 1.92) with 10% share in the energy mix, and lower WTP for biomass and small hydropower electricity generations (USD 1.13 and USD 1.17, respectively). Careful public communication is thus crucial for expanding biomass and small-scale hydro power plants.