Knowledge and the valuation of public goods and experiential commodities: information provision and acquisition

Provides empirical evidence of deficient knowledge of public goods and experiential commodities. It considers whether information provision about the characteristics of these commodities is likely to result in individuals' finding their 'true' preferences, and identifies the nature of information that should be conveyed to enable commodities to be appropriately valued. It recognises that some commodities contain attributes that individuals are unable to evaluate. Furthermore, individuals acquire and filter information about commodities, and these endogenous activities require analysis. Cost-benefit analysis of information acquisition suggests that individuals are less likely to acquire information about public goods than private goods. Even when underlying meta-values of commodities are stationary, perceived values of commodities may vary due to elicitation procedures and information provision, and subsequent crowding out and forgetting of information about the focal commodities. This makes it difficult to determine the appropriate contingent values to use.