Attribute Non-attendance in Choice Experiments of Marine Ecosystem Goods and Services: Special Issue Introduction

Abstract

INTRODUCTION This special issue of Marine Resource Economics focuses on attribute non-attendance (ANA) in stated preference research. ANA occurs when individuals ignore one or more attributes in stated preference choice experiment (CE) questions. If present but unaddressed, ANA can lead to biased model coefficients and welfare estimates. The ANA literature includes two primary approaches for identifying and accounting for ANA behavior in CE studies: the stated and inferred ANA approaches. In the stated ANA approach, survey respondents provide self-reported information about CE attributes that have been ignored or given less than full attention. In the inferred ANA approach, econometric models are used to probabilistically discern ANA behavior from the choice data. In the rest of this introduction, we conduct a systematic bibliometric analysis to characterize the ANA literature and a meta-analysis to examine the effect of ANA strategies on welfare estimates. We then briefly summarize the articles in this special issue and describe how they fit into the literature. Finally, we offer some suggestions for future research.