541/2021 Konrad Burchardi, Jonathan de Quidt, Selim Gulesci, Benedetta Lerva and Stefano Tripodi

Researchers frequently use variants of the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) mechanism to elicit willingness to pay (WTP). These variants involve numerous incentive-irrelevant design choices, some of which carry advantages for implementation but may deteriorate participant comprehension or trust in the mechanism, which are well-known problems with the BDM. We highlight three such features and test them in the field in rural Uganda, a relevant population for many recent applications. Comprehension is very high, and 86 percent of participants bid optimally for an induced-value voucher, with little variation across treatments. This gives confidence for similar applications, and suggests the comprehension-expediency trade-off is mild.

Culture, Behaviour and Development

Journal of Development Economics

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2021.102701