Benefit Transfer: Insights from Choice Experiments

Abstract

In this chapter we explore six key reasons for the close alignment of choice modeling (CM) experiments with benefit transfer applications. Of these six, some relate to the richness of value estimate output that is generated in CM applications, whereas others involve the insights into choice behavior and the nature of preferences that are gained through the use of the technique. These outcomes improve the accuracy of the benefit transfer process and also provide more verification and confidence in the results. An additional focus of the chapter is to explore the tension between improving the accuracyAccuracy and insights from CM on the one hand against, on the other, the need to make benefit transfer practical and operational. Although there is an extensive literature on the development and operation of the CM technique, it is not practical to cover this in a single chapter; instead the focus here is on the aspects of CMs that offer the most insight into benefit transfer processes.