What's appropriate? Investigating the effects of attribute framing and changing cost levels in choice experiments

Choice Experiments (CE) are increasingly used to estimate the values of non-market goods and services.A cost attribute is typically included in a CE questionnaire to enable the estimation of monetary values for changes in the non-market attributes presented.Notwithstanding the central importance of the cost attribute, limited research has been undertaken on the impacts of varying the levels of the cost attribute on respondents' choices in CE surveys.Furthermore, the context in which non-market attributes are presented to respondents -the 'attribute frame' -may affect value estimates.The challenge for CE practitioners is to identify the 'appropriate' attribute frames and range in cost levels.Results from a CE study in Tasmania show that respondents' preferences are not impacted by describing an attribute in 'presence' versus 'loss', indicating that the absolute levels of the attribute were most important in this study's context.Comparisons between different split samples do provide evidence that respondents' preferences are impacted by changing the level of the cost attribute, with higher levels leading to significantly higher estimates of WTP for one of the three environmental attributes.