Environmental attitudes as WTP predictors: A case study involving endangered species

Abstract

This paper investigates environmental attitudes as significant motives for the behavioral intention of willingness to pay (WTP) involving endangered species in a choice modeling context, and examines the underlying causal mechanism. Pro-environmental attitudes are measured using the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale. Although the empirical evidence of this paper supports a significant attitude–WTP association, the causal mechanism is different from previous theorizing. When observed at the parameter level using random parameter logit models, the significant causal linkages are evident with both the target good and the payment variable. The findings of this paper not only support direct and indirect impacts of general attitudes on WTP, but also provide novel findings about the causal mechanism for a significant attitude–WTP relationship at the parameter level in a non-Western case study. The impact of past visiting experience was also significant on the relationship, undermining the impact of attitudes on WTP.