Real Willingness Research Articles

More than deliberation is needed: Potential for agonistic moments in community wind energy planning

Although community project planning is widely understood as crucial to equitable wind energy infrastructure planning, involved members of the public nevertheless perceive such participatory interventions as merely pseudo-participatory. Drawing on agonistic planning literature, we argue that this disposition towards tokenism can only be tackled with a (re)politization of community project planning practices. This includes an explicit (re)integration and cultivation of dissent and the potential overthrow of traditionally consensus-oriented formats that follow the deliberative paradigm. For radically political community energy project planning, however, public discourses must be fluid and participants must be open towards dissent, which largely contradicts the typical postures of a deliberative citizen who is supposed to argue in a rational and objective way, using the best arguments to convince others. To examine the feasibility of agonistic approaches for community wind energy planning, we conducted a quantitative discourse analysis on the data set of a large regional survey of an on-going wind energy planning project in Switzerland. We focused on estimating the degree of hegemony of public wind energy discourses and the willingness of residents to engage in participatory settings that can facilitate radically political community project planning (e.g., substantive participation settings). Our results show that for planning individual wind energy projects, the potential for agonistic planning approaches is low, not only because the discourses are already too hegemonic, but also because there is no real willingness to engage in radically political community wind energy project planning. In the context of early, comprehensive, and integrated community planning, however, agonistic approaches could provide the ground for open and innovative participatory planning of renewable energies.

Exploring the influence of Chinese online patient trust on telemedicine behavior: insights into perceived risk and behavior intention.

As a supplement to medical services, telemedicine is of great significance to alleviate the shortage of health resources in China. Based on the traditional consumer behavior measurement model the Technology Acceptance Mode/Theory of Planned Behavior (TAM/TPB), this paper divides online patient trust into six dimensions: perceived risk, personal trust tendency, doctors' credibility, hospitals' credibility, websites' credibility, and system guarantee. On this basis, a structural equation model (SEM) was used to explore the influence of each dimension of online patient trust on online patient intention, behavior choice, and pre-factors. A total of 582 valid questionnaires were distributed to selected patients with experience in using mobile healthcare services in the vicinity of hospitals and communities, as well as to users who shared their experiences in the discussion forums of mobile healthcare websites. The results show that online patient trust has a significant positive impact on telemedicine behavior intention selection, with a standardized path coefficient being as high as 0.866. Doctors' credibility, system guarantee, and website credibility have significant positive effects on online patient trust, with standardized path coefficients of 0.401, 0.260, and 0.226, respectively. Hospital trustworthiness and personal trust propensity have no significant effect on online patient trust. Perceived risk has a significant negative effect on online patient trust, with a standardized path coefficient of -0.118. The research findings suggest that health departments and mobile healthcare providers can enhance mobile healthcare services by considering the patients' perspectives, elevate their online trust levels, and foster a deeper understanding, safety consciousness, and confidence in telehealth services. On this basis, it can be concluded that only the participation of government, medical subjects, and online patients can effectively reduce perceived risks, improve perceived characteristics of online patients, enhance online patient trust, and promote the real willingness and behavior choice for online medical services, effectively improving the positive role of telemedicine in increasing health benefits to people.

The Impact of Zero-COVID Policy on the Economic Conditions from Chinese Citizens Perspective

Chinese social environment faces a transition. More and more citizens get tired of the current situation. This work selects 12 citizens from different regions in mainland China and analyzes their current conditions and the impacts to each industry. Many occupations interests have been severely damaged and thus most citizens are looking forward to the end of zero-COVID policy. The research exhibits the conditions and real willingness of Chinese citizens in mainland. It is not only a theoretic analysis but also with real cases. This work provides unprecedented details of the Chinese public.

Optimization of captain’s safety management

The article is devoted to the maritime safety issues in terms of captain’s management activity. Effective and safe management of captains can be achieved by identifying the importance of considering psychophysiological factors in the selection of seamen personnel, including captains, in conjunction with their managerial qualifications and high level of legal culture (knowledge and real willingness to strictly follow legal prescriptions and regulations), and by using a formal safety assessment method in relation to maritime crew management risks.
 The authors made a conclusion that the causes of accidents are rooted in the conflict between two main components: subjective (behavior – managerial decision) and objective (vessel and situation), in fact, the captain's personality (or behavior) complies with the requirements of the situation or technical condition of the vessel.
 Psychophysiological selection aims to identify abilities and qualities that appropriate professions, accompanied by significant neuropsychological strain, the severity of stressful situations, etc. It appeared that reaction disorder play a decisive role in one-third of all accidents, ergo, psychophysiological selection can reduce maritime casualties by 20-25%. In this respect, the application of the formal safety assessment method in combination with psychophysiological selection in the context of optimizing captain's safety management is proposed. The authors considered the professional selection of captains based on stable psychophysiological states and qualification while assessing the risks via formal safety assessment methodology as a dual basis of the maritime safety.
 The functional dependence of maritime safety on the policy of the shipping companies is defined: a) risk assessment, which allows to connect legal norms of safety directly with actions of the captain as much as possible, based on modelling of a situation; b) personnel activity, carried out on the basis of professional and managerial abilities of captains and taking into account the psychophysiological states; c) the level of legal culture (knowledge and strict adherence to safety rules and regulations) of the captain, who operates within the commercial, social and safety sectors, based on the complex of legal rules and regulations governing these sectors.

Study on the Influencing Factors and Willingness to Pay of Consumers Purchasing Ecological Agricultural Products.

With the steady rise of China's agricultural production and management level, the market of ecological agricultural products has developed rapidly, and consumers are increasingly concerned about ecological agricultural products. Consumers' cognition and purchase intention are the keys to determine their future development. This research is aimed at ensuring that consumers have access to high-quality ecological agricultural products, thereby promoting the supply and production of ecological agricultural products, minimizing agricultural carbon emissions, and providing information on sustainable food pricing. Based on the research status at home and abroad, this study combines the questionnaire survey method to study the influencing factors and willingness to pay of consumers purchasing ecological agricultural products. A total of 601 online questionnaires from consumers in Harbin, a city in northeastern China, were collected, and statistical factor analysis, principal component analysis, and regression analysis were used to study the influencing factors of consumers' purchase of ecological agricultural products from both positive and negative aspects, and in-depth analysis of the reasons why consumers refuse to pay, get the most real willingness to pay and related influencing factors, and quantify the influence of various variables on consumers' purchasing behavior was done. On this basis, a logit model of survival analysis is constructed to study the premium payment level of consumers for ecological agricultural products, and the payment premium is 24.95%. The research results show that married, who have purchased ecological agricultural products, the higher the understanding of ecological agricultural products, the consumers who buy ecological agricultural products in farmers' markets, Meituan and community group purchases, and the households with higher monthly consumption of agricultural products have a significant positive correlation with consumers' purchase of ecological agricultural products. The higher the education level, the older the age, and the larger the family size were significantly negatively correlated with consumers' purchase of ecological agricultural products.

The Relationship between Income Instability and Psychological Condition of Real Estate Price Changes and Willingness to Adjust Real Estate Holding Ratio

The Relationship between Income Instability and Psychological Condition of Real Estate Price Changes and Willingness to Adjust Real Estate Holding Ratio

Динаміка розвитку формальної політичної участі в Україні в період 2014-2019 років

The article examines one of the types of political participation of citizens – formal political participation, which in turn includes voting in elections and referendums, active support for political parties, contacting of citizens with government officials and membership in trade unions. The author's attention is focused on such types of formal political participation as voting in elections and support for political parties in Ukraine in 2014-2019, which allows assessing the ability of institutions of representative democracy to solve problems that were relevant to citizens during this period. The article analyzes the quantitative indicators of turnout in the presidential elections (in 2014 and 2019), parliamentary elections (in 2014 and 2019), regular local elections (in 2015). It is identified that the turnout in this period is minimal for all the years of Ukraine's independence, and the fact of elections in conditions of military aggression affected the ability of citizens to participate in the election. Thus, turnout does not characterize the real willingness of Ukrainian citizens to use this type of formal political participation. Quantitative indicators of membership, activity support and trust in political parties were also analyzed. This led to the conclusion that political parties did not enjoy the support of the population during the research period. Such an attitude of citizens to political parties is explained by certain shortcomings of their functioning in Ukraine: insufficient interaction with the broad segments of society, inability to demonstrate effective solutions to current problems and show independence from large business elites. Indicators of formal political participation of Ukrainian citizens show that the institutions of representative power in the researched period were not fully capable of performing their social functions. This caused a change in the electoral preferences of citizens in the 2019 elections and led to the reform of electoral legislation.

ПИТАННЯ РЕАЛІЗАЦІЇ РЕСУРСНОГО ПОТЕНЦІАЛУ ЛЮДЕЙ ПОХИЛОГО ВІКУ В СФЕРІ ОСВІТИ

In the context of accelerating the demographic aging of Russia and raising the retirement age in the country, the issues of active longevity and the realization of the resource potential of older people in various fields are significantly updated. The purpose of the article is to assess the implementation of active longevity in the field of education. The object of the study is the population of the retirement age of the Komi Republic. Methods used in the study. The study used methods of systemic, statistical analysis, comparison, induction and financial and economic analysis. The main hypothesis of the study was the assumption that the use of the resource potential of older people will improve the quality of education with a view to the sustainable development of the state economy. Statement of the main material. The study was carried out on the basis of official statistics and the results of sociological surveys of the population over 55 years old, conducted in 2013 and 2018. The article discusses the dynamics of the level of professional education of the population over working age in Russia and the Komi Republic, assesses the attitude of older people to new knowledge and their real willingness to learn as the most important components of the resource potential of older generations. The originality and practical value of the study. It was established that almost half of Russian pensioners are highly qualified specialists with secondary and higher professional education, in Komi their educational level is somewhat shifted in favor of secondary professional education, which is due to the characteristics of the sectoral structure of the economy. The level of education of older people continues to grow and is gradually approaching the level characteristic of working age. At the same time, the older generation has significant cognitive potential, which is characterized by growth. More than 60% of older people surveyed in 2018 believe that older people are able to acquire new knowledge and skills, and 40% are ready to retrain themselves. Conclusions. In the context of the growing economic challenges of demographic aging, it is necessary to expand the possibilities of realizing the resource potential of the older population, not only in employment, but also in education

Testing hypothetical bias in a framed field experiment

AbstractHypothetical bias is tested based on inter‐ and intra‐respondent comparisons of choice behavior, applying a hypothetical and real choice experiment. The inter‐respondent comparison commonly applied in the environmental and agricultural economics literature consists of a control group of buyers who are asked to hypothetically choose between conventional and organic beans and an experimental group of buyers who are endowed to purchase the same beans using an identical experimental design. Hypothetical bias is tested by comparing inter‐ and intra‐respondents’ (i) hypothetical and real choices, (ii) preference parameters of the estimated choice models related to hypothetical and real choices, and (iii) hypothetical and real willingness to pay (WTP). Choices in the experimental group are highly consistent when switching from hypothetical to real choices for this study's homegrown goods. However, after being endowed, the price sensitivity of lower income households drops, suggesting a house money effect. WTP derived from actual purchases is higher than WTP based on hypothetical choices, indicating a negative hypothetical bias, but differences are only significant in the case of the inter‐respondent comparison. Actual prices paid by respondents in the field experiment appear to be considerably lower than the estimated WTP values and yield a mixed picture of hypothetical bias.

Collaborating for Legislative Success: Overcoming Organizational Tribalism

Historically, the roles and responsibilities of professional nursing organizations have often overlapped, creating friction and frustration within the profession. Who is responsible for what, how will the initiative be led, and perhaps the most concerning, but unspoken challenge: who will get the credit? Colorado professional nursing organizations have been experiencing these issues for years, with no real willingness to face these challenges head on, until recently. The state Nurse Practice Act is going to sunset in 2020, and there are some clear challenges facing the profession that will have to be dealt with directly and collaboratively by nurse leaders. Without a strong, unified voice, the forces that oppose allowing professional nurses to work to the full extent of their education and experience will divide and conquer. If that happens, it isn't just nursing that loses; it is every citizen of the state who needs to access health care. Colorado nursing organizations and leaders are working to create a new and cohesive path to build strong and open partnerships designed to ensure that nursing retains and, in some ways, gains a stronger level of control over the future of the profession. This article tells how that story is beginning and how it may create an example for all states to build a cohesive legislative agenda designed to support, not only nursing leadership, but also the patients nurses serve.

Faktory volby dopravního prostředku – podstatný aspekt proměny současných měst

The aim of the paper is to answer questions related to the explanation of the travel mode choice used by people for regular commuting and what role in their decision making can be attributed to location of their residence, i.e. how the travel mode choice differs in case of traditional urban residents and suburban residents. The reason why to study everyday commuting is the fact that people currently living in western cities spend a lot of time and money commuting and the aggregate of everyday individual mobility generates a significant environmental impact. I study the travel mode choice from two perspectives: a) statistical and b) behavioural. Using the statistical analysis I explain the travel mode choice based on situational constraints and differences between social groups. The statistical analysis, however, is unable to explain how the situational constraints lead to different behaviour in different individuals and also the part of behaviour that cannot be explained using the constraints, thus I add a qualitative study. Summarizing both types of findings, I conclude that the everyday travel mode choice depends to a large extent on constraints that cannot be influenced by individuals: i) the amount of time and money available to the individual, ii) public transport services, civic facilities in the place of residence, and iii) required mobility for job related reasons. In the qualitative study I focus on what type of residence people prefer. Looking into preferred characteristics of people’s place of residence and actual travel behaviour I generate general classification of rationality related to the travel mode choice: 1) travel mode choice rationality based on constraints, 2) a consistent lifestyle including travel mode as well as nature of residence choice, and 3) the travel mode choice as an unreflected habit. According to the three types of rationality we can identify different factors of individual transport development: a) differences in the nature of individual travel modes and their attractiveness related to individual economic and professional constraints, b) real willingness of many people to live in residential locations with a lower accessibility and lower level of services, and c) a habit to drive a car automatically regardless of conditions as a natural part of habitus of economic middle and upper classes. Differentiation of these factors leads to different implications when considering possibilities of overturning the current increasing trend of car transport. Firstly, it is a question of price or other regulation changing attractiveness of the individual alternatives. Secondly, there are factors related to preference of suburban lifestyle including not only normative and cultural patterns but also significant differences in real estate prices in internal cities and suburban locations. In the last case of the habit to use a car regardless of available alternatives as a part of habitus of economic middle and upper classes the discussion about possible changes is the most demanding. However, this study shows that majority of people make their travel mode choices taking into account real possibilities and constraints and thus that it is possible to influence their behaviour through economic and other types of regulation.

The Difficulties in Measuring Individual Utilities of Product Attributes: A Choice Based Experiment

The study combines different theoretical approaches in the field of conjoint analysis to estimate the im-portance of product related attributes. This is of major importance in food marketing, where we still try to find a valid answer, in particular, how to measure the real willingness to pay (WTP) for specific product specifica-tions. Based on a comprehensive literature analysis, a common method was used to approximate the im-portance of several product attributes. As usually suggested in literature, we used discrete choice modeling and developed a choice based experimental design considering selected product attributes. The study object was frozen pizza, a convenience good frequently bought by most households. Up to this point, there is nothing special about the choice based experiment in comparison to direct measure-ment of the importance of product attributes. However, one of the core problems of discrete choice modeling – the approximation of individual utility functions – was then addressed by transforming the choices of con-sumers into scores. With these scores traditional conjoint measurement can be used to approximate individual utilities even in choice based experiments. The individual part-worth utilities will be compared with a usual but very complex approach to approximate individual part-worth utilities, the hierarchical Bayes method. Our ap-proach addresses methodological considerations concerning the restrictions of discrete choice modeling, namely the complexity of approximating individual utilities which is of huge importance in particular for market segmentation.

Watershed Management Benefits in a Hypothetical, Real Intention and Real Willingness to Pay Approach

Despite growing knowledge of a disparity between stated and actual willingness to engage in pro-environmental behavior, little is known about the cognitive or attitudinal factors explaining the disparity. In the context of water quality improvement in a river basin, we address the disparity issue by applying two approaches: a typical valuation question with a hypothetical option of voluntary payment and a valuation question with a real option of voluntary payment. The latter treatment allows for further analysis of the respondents who committed to a real payment. We show empirical evidence on the psychological factors explaining the disparity between the treatments and its relationship with response uncertainty. The extent of learning from the survey about water management of the watershed increased the likelihood of stating the willingness to contribute, either with certainty or uncertainty. In turn, a previous contribution to the environmental issue, higher income, belief in the scenario, and responding to the hypothetical treatment increased the likelihood of stating certain willingness to contribute. Our findings indicate that the factors influencing the decision on the maximum payment differ between treatments. Cognitive factors, such as perceiving the valuation scenario as plausible, learning from the questionnaire, and in which mailing round the respondent completed the survey, only explained the stated amount for the willingness to pay in the treatment with a hypothetical option for voluntary payment. In the real option treatment, a higher stated willingness to pay was more likely if the respondent actually made the payment and had a higher household income.

Time Window as a Self-Control Denominator: Shorter Windows Shift Preference toward Virtues and Longer Windows toward Vices

When planning future consumption, individuals are known to opt for large virtue quantities and small vice quantities as a means of self-control. We argue that such planning may also involve the time window within which a given quantity needs to be consumed because the final objective is to plan for a desired consumption rate (i.e., quantity/time window)—a high virtue rate and a low vice rate. Five studies reveal that, holding quantity constant, a short window (i.e., high rate) nudges individuals toward virtues, and a long window (i.e., low rate) toward vices. We find this effect for hypothetical and real virtue-vice choices, preferences, and willingness to extend a time window. Furthermore, these effects are mediated by the pursuit of long-term health goals; and are moderated such that the effect of time windows is stronger for those who need more help in meeting their self-control goals: impulsive individuals. While these effects are consistent with self-control, we discuss a blend of mechanisms that may be working in conjunction, particularly at the stage that we focus on: planning rather than consuming. Our results offer strong theoretical implications and important consequences for the marketplace where expiration periods and other time windows are ubiquitous.

Belgian class II nuclear facilities such as irradiators and accelerators: Regulatory Body attention points and operating experience feedback

Abstract The aim of this paper is to present the Regulatory Body attention points and the operating experience feedback from Belgian “class IIA” facilities such as industrial and research irradiators, bulk radionuclides producers and conditioners. Reinforcement of the nuclear safety and radiation protection has been promoted by the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC) since 2009. This paper is clearly a continuation of the former paper [1] presenting the evolution in the regulatory framework relative to the creation of Bel V, the subsidiary of the FANC, and to the new “class IIA” covering heavy installations such as those mentioned above. Some lessons learnt are extracted from the operating experience feedback based on the events declared to the authorities. Even though a real willingness to meet the new safety requirements is observed among the “class IIA” licensees, promoting the safety culture, the nuclear safety and radiation protection remains an endless challenge for the Regulatory Body.

Revealing the Preferences of the FARC

Currently the FARC and the Colombian Government are negotiating a peace agreement in the city of Havana in Cuba. Although the results of these talks are uncertain and the final goal of the rebels is not observable, it is possible to analyze their strategy under different scenarios and associate the actions undertaken by the insurgents with their real willingness to cease violence. We model the strategy of an insurgent group that follows a pattern of prolonged popular war but negotiates with the government. The main results of the model are the following: (i) If the marginal probability of signing a peace treaty is significantly low when the guerrilla invests little on non-violent strategies, then they will continue to fight and allocate all its resources on military power. (ii) If the guerrillas value political participation as they value a complete revolution, and the depreciation of its military power is higher than the budget they can allocate; then the optimal strategy is to avoid military confrontation and devote all the resources to sign a peace treaty. (iii) By increasing its military power the government can generate a change in the strategy of the rebels and, particularly, a reduction in the budget allocated to military power.

Determinants of willingness to pay for groundwater: insights from informal water markets in Rafsanjan, Iran

This study highlights the methodological challenges in determining the value of water in informal water markets. As the decision to participate in water markets is unlikely to be random, self-selectivity is an important issue for an unbiased estimation of the participating farmers’ revealed willingness to pay. The relevance of these issues is illustrated for an informal irrigation water market in Iran. A two-stage random sampling was carried out in pistachio-growing farms which are irrigated by water from the Rafsanjan aquifer in Iran during 2008–2009. A Heckman sample selection model shows that the real willingness to pay can be less than the observed prices in an informal water market.

Research Note:Exaggeration Bias-Corrected Contingent Valuation Method: The Case of Olle Trail

Researchers have criticized the traditional contingent valuation method (CVM) due to its potential response bias. To address this bias, several studies have employed improved CVM survey designs. When respondents disguise the truth, non-sampling errors are created that cannot be corrected by these elaborate survey modifications. To reduce this type of non-sampling error, Park and MacLachlan (2008) suggested the exaggeration bias-corrected (EBC) CVM, which assumes a functional mechanism between real and spurious willingness to pay (WTP). The authors verify the effectiveness of the EBC-CVM in non-sampling error reduction, which in turn derives more error-corrected economic value. Few studies have employed the EBC-CVM in a tourism context. The main goals of this study are to introduce EBC-CVM and to test its validity in a tourism study. The results indicate that EBC-CVM contributes to the reduction of non-sampling errors. The implications of the findings are discussed.

Hypothetical Bias in Risk Preferences as a Driver of Hypothetical Bias in Willingness to Pay: Experimental Evidence

This study provides new insight on the established issue of elicitation bias in hypothetical choice settings. In particular, using an experiment that elicits real and hypothetical willingness to pay for the protection of otters, we provide evidence that the observed bias is driven by those who are both uncertain about their value and exhibit hypothetical bias in risk attitudes. This finding provides a reason why calibration approaches based on follow-up certainty questions have proven useful, but also suggests a degree of caution in applying the approach. Our results favour combining uncertainty calibration with CVM-X in which hypothetical bias in risk attitudes is also taken account to correct for hypothetical bias in WTP.

Planning in Rurbania: rural policy and the planning system in Norway

In most European countries planning in rural areas has largely been restricted to protecting the countryside and agricultural land from built development. Rural planning has often been driven by programmes to foster food production, and there seems to be little willingness to change the traditional ‘productivist’ agricultural approach. Even in the face of rapidly changing demographic, social, environmental and economic realities, policy frameworks all over the world continue to emphasise agriculture as the key sector for rural regions, including the urban fringe. In this paper we outline the main features of the Norwegian planning system and the challenges facing it in rural areas. More specifically, we show how local authorities in six ‘rurban’ municipalities near two of Norway's largest cities view the problem - and what they have done adjust to it. In the Norwegian case studies we find a real willingness to change the traditional agricultural approach. We argue that the reason for this is the long trad...