Elsevier

Ecological Economics

Volume 131, January 2017, Pages 64-74
Ecological Economics

Motivations matter: Behavioural determinants of preferences for remote and unfamiliar environmental goods

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.08.021Get rights and content

Abstract

Discrete choice experiments (DCE) are one of the main methods for the valuation of non-market environmental goods. However, concerns regarding the validity of choice responses obtained in such surveys remain, particularly in surveys dealing with environmental goods remote from and unfamiliar to respondents. This study assesses behavioural determinants of preferences for conservation benefits of a marine protected area on the Dogger Bank, a shallow sandbank in the southern North Sea in an attempt to assess construct validity of survey responses. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Norm Activation Model (NAM) are employed to empirically measure constructs that predict stated choices. The study finds that identified protest respondents score significantly lower on most TPB and NAM components than non-protesters. Results further show that components of both the TPB and the NAM robustly predict choice behaviour. The inclusion of the TPB components improves the predictive power of the estimation model more than the NAM components. In an additional latent class logit model, TPB and NAM components plausibly explain different patterns of WTP for conservation benefits of an offshore marine protected area. These findings support construct validity of stated choice data regarding the valuation of remote and unfamiliar environmental goods.

Introduction

Discrete choice experiments (DCE) are an increasingly popular method for eliciting willingness to pay (WTP) for non-market environmental goods. DCEs are a stated preference technique in which respondents to a survey are asked to make choices between alternatives of different environmental programmes at different costs (Hanley et al., 1998, Adamowicz et al., 1998, Louviere et al., 2000, Kanninen, 2006). From respondents' stated choices the value they attach to the different attributes, by which these environmental programmes are described, can be inferred and expressed as their marginal WTP. These WTP estimates can be interpreted as indicators of the change in well-being respondents expect from a change in the provision of any of these choice attributes. In recent years, DCE alongside contingent valuation (Carson and Hanemann, 2005) have increasingly been used to value non-market environmental goods, including those that are remote from and unfamiliar to survey respondents.

Criticism of DCE, and stated preference techniques in general, has focused on the validity of responses. Validity of stated preference data, or more specifically construct validity, can be established by identifying whether respondents' choices are internally consistent and whether the relationship between WTP and explanatory variables is consistent with that predicted by theory (Kling et al., 2012). Research in contingent valuation has tried to improve construct validity by understanding the underlying motivations behind respondents' WTP statements (e.g. Meyerhoff, 2006, Liebe et al., 2011, Rosenberger et al., 2012). Research into DCE is following suit.

Attitudes are often included in contingent valuation and DCE studies in an ad hoc way, for example, focusing on issues of general environmental concern (Milon and Scrogin, 2006), on the good to be valued in the study (e.g. Ahlheim et al., 2015) or represented by membership of an environmental group (e.g. Jobstvogt et al., 2014, Yao et al., 2014). They often fail to appreciate the full complexity of attitude development and its association with behaviour. Consequently, despite demonstrating a strong correlation with WTP, environmental attitudes alone have been shown to be poor predictors of behaviour (Meyerhoff, 2006, Ajzen and Fishbein, 2005, Kaiser et al., 1999). This lends support to Kahneman et al. (1993) who suggest that respondents may apply a contribution model rather than a purchase model when making WTP decisions. The environmental good in question is considered to be a cause worth supporting, rather than something an individual is willing to pay for. The size of the contribution reflects the perceived seriousness of the problem and might therefore be higher for smaller but more immediate changes than for larger-scale but more remote goods (Guagnano et al., 1994). In this interpretation, stated WTP or choices are merely an expression of ranking of importance or urgency rather than a quantitative metric of the expected utility change.

Understanding what determines WTP may be particularly relevant in the context of remote and unfamiliar goods where preferences may not be clearly held for the good to be valued in the survey (Bateman, 2011). This is of considerable importance when it comes to the marine environment and the valuation of the environmental goods that it provides. A major difficulty in marine valuation studies is that, unlike the valuation of terrestrial environmental goods, many respondents lack experience and knowledge regarding the good to be valued (Aanesen et al., 2015, Jobstvogt et al., 2014, McVittie and Moran, 2010). Attitude surveys have shown that the marine environment is regarded by many as remote and unfamiliar (Jefferson et al., 2014, Rose et al., 2008, Steel et al., 2005). Consequently concern exists about the validity of valuations derived from surveys on marine environmental goods (Hanley et al., 2015). The criticism is particularly strong when it comes to existence values, which are likely to be the dominant value category of offshore and deep sea environmental goods.

Using a DCE, this study values the ecological changes resulting from the implementation of a management plan for the Dogger Bank, a shallow sandbank located in the southern North Sea. The remoteness of the location and the likelihood that respondents have limited knowledge of the area raises questions over what determines the choices respondents make and their consequent WTP, as well as the validity of their responses. It also provides an opportunity to examine which model respondents' use when making their choices, the purchase or the contribution model. To investigate validity, two behavioural models are incorporated into the study: the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991) and the Norm Activation Model (Schwartz, 1970, Schwartz, 1977). The aim of this study is, therefore, to explain the variation in preferences for a set of marine conservation benefits as expressed by respondents' stated choices by means of behavioural concepts originating in social psychology.

The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) acknowledges that behaviour (including ecological behaviour) is susceptible to a range of influences beyond an individual's control, including personal abilities and social constraints. Focusing on attitudes towards paying for the Dogger Bank management plan and these additional influences, the TPB is used to assess the motivations that lead survey respondents to state choices for different levels of conservation benefits provided by the sandbank ecosystem. Assuming that the WTP expressed through stated choices in a DCE is a behavioural intention, it is straightforward to apply components of the TPB as predictors of those stated choices. It is therefore hypothesised that this inclusion improves the predictive power of choice models. In contrast, the Norm Activation Model (NAM) can be used to assess to what extent stated choices are motivated by altruistic concerns. According to the economic theory expressed through the purchase model, the effect of the changes to be valued on other people, society as a whole, or future generations should not affect the level of stated WTP or the stated choices. If they do construct validity would be undermined. While both the NAM and the TPB have been employed to explain direct WTP statements in contingent valuation surveys (e.g. Liebe et al., 2011, Bernath and Roschewitz, 2008, Guagnano et al., 1994) and the TPB in a DCE relating to food-choice (Nocella et al., 2012), the application of TPB and NAM to predict stated choices in a DCE survey in the environmental field is still very rare (Kenter et al., 2014). The present study thus responds to the recent call for more research in this area (López-Mosquera et al., 2014).

The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. Section 2 introduces the TPB and the NAM, their components and their respective links to stated preference environmental valuation from which the research hypotheses are derived. Section 3 explains the methodological approach before Section 4 presents the results. Section 5 provides some discussion, and Section 6 concludes.

Section snippets

The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)

The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) states that intentions to carry out a certain behaviour can be predicted by attitudes towards that particular behaviour, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control (Ajzen, 1991). The more positive an individual's attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control, the greater the likelihood that the individual intends to carry out the behaviour when the opportunity arises. Based on the expectancy-value model (Fishbein, 1963) attitudes,

The Survey Instrument

The valuation scenario was developed against the backdrop of the designation of the Dogger Bank as a transnational Special Area of Conservation (SAC) by the UK, Germany and the Netherlands. A management plan is being developed to regulate human activities and conservation efforts on the site. Fishing and future energy generation are the two sectors with the greatest potential to impact local environmental conditions. The choice attributes therefore reflect the impact on the Dogger Bank

Sample Characteristics and Attitudinal Variables

An online survey was conducted in early December 2013. Of the 2425 who initiated the survey, 1022 complete responses were obtained, representing a response rate of approximately 42%. Of the 1621 partially completed responses, 599 were due to the quota for the age-gender class in which the respondent fell being full, 7 were excluded because they were under 18, while the remainder dropped out due to unknown reasons. This unknown drop-out rate of 33% could, in part, be a consequence of

Discussion

In three steps the above analysis investigates the influence of two social psychological concepts on responses in a DCE to value benefits from marine conservation. The analysis shows that respondents discarded from the sample as protesters score significantly lower on all TPB and all but one NAM components. This effect of some TPB components on protest responses has been found in earlier studies (Bernath and Roschewitz, 2008). Protesters have less of an intention to make a payment for the

Conclusions

This study responds to the call for a more thorough investigation of the behavioural determinants of preferences for environmental goods (López-Mosquera et al., 2014). Components of the TPB and the NAM are employed to explain stated choices and estimated WTP for conservation benefits of an offshore marine protected area in the North Sea – a set of particularly remote and unfamiliar environmental goods. The findings with respect to the TPB are encouraging as they support the idea that choices

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) within the Ocean of Tomorrow call under Grant Agreement No. 266445 for the project Vectors of Change in Oceans and Seas Marine Life, Impact on Economic Sectors (VECTORS). The authors would like to thank Jon Atkins, Daryl Burdon and Mel Austen for their contribution to the survey and two anonymous reviewers for comments on earlier versions of the paper.

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