Stated attribute non-attendance in successive choice experiments

Kehlbacher, A., Balcombe, K. and Bennett, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3226-8370 (2013) Stated attribute non-attendance in successive choice experiments. Journal of Agricultural Economics, 64 (3). pp. 693-706. ISSN 0021-857X doi: 10.1111/1477-9552.12021

Abstract/Summary

Attribute non-attendance in choice experiments affects WTP estimates and therefore the validity of the method. A recent strand of literature uses attenuated estimates of marginal utilities of ignored attributes. Following this approach, we propose a generalisation of the mixed logit model whereby the distribution of marginal utility coefficients of a stated non-attender has a potentially lower mean and lower variance than those of a stated attender. Model comparison shows that our shrinkage approach fits the data better and produces more reliable WTP estimates. We further find that while reliability of stated attribute non-attendance increases in successive choice experiments, it does not increase when respondents report having ignored the same attribute twice.