Direct Willingness-to-Pay Questions: An Analysis of Their Use For Quantitatively Valuing Wildlife

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Abstract
The direct consumer's surplus method is a conceptually sound and versatile method for quantitatively valuing wildlife, but it is controversial because it relies on data collected by directly asking respondents to provide estimates of their own “willingness to pay.” This paper describes an application of the direct consumer's surplus method and presents a comparative analysis of hunter and nonhunter responses to direct willingness-to-pay questions. In the process, the difficulties encountered in formulating a willingness-to-pay question are detailed. We were unable to reach any definitive conclusions concerning the use of direct willingness-to-pay questions for eliciting consumer's surplus estimates from nonhunters. However, our findings do add to the mounting evidence that direct willingness-to-pay questions are useful for obtaining consumer's surplus estimates from hunters.