July 1985
Western Journal of Agricultural Economics
During the actual fielding of the var-
ious bidding games, many anglers ex-
pressed reluctance to engage in the bid-
ding activity. To a lesser extent, other
anglers stated emphatically that they
would pay or receive nothing ($0). It was
subsequently determined through ques-
tioning whether such bids were legitimate
$0 bids, or protest bids. Protest bids were
treated as nonresponses. Anglers who re-
sponded with legitimate $0 bids were as-
signed a final bid value of $0. Anglers who
refused to answer a given question were
not considered legitimate observations for
that particular question. The number of
anglers in both of these categories differed
depending on the specific question format
and starting value used (Table 1). High
starting values used in WTP question for-
mats appear to have discouraged or alien-
ated the most respondents as evidenced by
the relatively high refusal rates for these
questions. This finding is important be-
cause it indicates that selection of starting
TABLE 1. Number of Respondents Refusing to Answer or Reporting $0 Bids for Alternative
Question Formats.
|
Subsample |
Question Format |
Refusals $0 Bids |
Refusals |
$0 Bids | |
|
Starting Bid = $1 |
Starting Bid |
= $800 | |||
|
I |
Willingness to Pay Daily Fuel Tax |
2 |
2 |
10 |
1 |
|
I |
Willingness to Accept Payment Not to Fish for Day N = 25 |
5 2 Starting Bid = $1 |
6 Starting Bid = |
1 = $8,000 | |
|
Il |
Willingness to Pay Annual User Fee |
5 |
0 |
18 |
2 |
|
Il |
Willingness to Accept Payment Not to N = 25 |
8 |
0 |
8 |
0 |
TABLE 2. Final Bid Outcomes for Different Starting Values: All Respondents Except Refusals.
|
Sub- |
Question Format |
Mean Bida (X1) |
Standard |
Calculated |
|
Standard T-Valueb | ||||
|
Mean Bid Deviation Ho: | ||||
|
(X2) (S2) X1 = X2 | ||||
|
Starting Bid |
= $1 |
Starting Bid = $800 | ||
|
I |
Willingness to Pay Daily Fuel |
$9 (23) |
$19 |
$90(15) $198 1.96* |
|
I |
Willingness to Accept Pay- |
$189(20) Starting Bid |
$204 = $1 |
$667(19) $297 5.88“ Starting Bid = $8,000 |
|
Il |
Willingness to Pay Annual |
$42 (20) |
$179 |
$1,428(7) $2,918 2.19" |
|
Il |
Willingness to Accept Pay- |
$5,176(17) |
$2,521 |
$6,902(17) $2,607 1.96* |
a Number of observations used to calculate means given in parentheses.
bT = [(X1 - X2)∕√(N1 - 1)(S1≡) + (N2 - 1 )(S22)]√[(N1 *N2)(N1 + N2 - 2)]∕(N1 + N2).
* Indicates significant at the 0.10 level.
** Indicates significant at the 0.05 level.
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