CV vs CE

 Adamowicz et al., 1998

 Cameron et al., 2002

We advocate a more formal structural approach for comparing WTP for non-market or
pre-test-market goods conveyed by fundamentally different preference elicitation mecha-
nisms. Seven independent samples of respondents were asked to value the identical good.
Elicitation methods include one actual purchase and six widely used hypothetical choice
formats. Using a common underlying indirect utility function and stochastic structure allows
data for different elicitation methods to be used independently, compared pair-wise as in
much of the earlier literature or pooled across all samples in one unified model with
heteroscedasticity across elicitation methods. Our differences in estimated WTP for the
individual models are typical of earlier findings. However, pooled-data models that allow for
heteroscedasticity reveal that while there are substantial differences in the amount of noise in
the different samples, a common underlying systematic component of the preference structure cannot be rejected for at least four and possibly five of these seven elicitation methods.