Beyond the crucial experiment: mapping the performance characteristics of contingent valuation

Through the 1970s and 1980s, contingent valuation (CV) research progressed steadily: applications increased in number and breadth, results gained a degree of credibility, and welfare evaluations from discrete choice data permitted widespread use of policy referendum formats. Following the Exxon Valdez damage assessments, vigorous challenges to CV were mobilized. Instead of the present preoccupation with standardizing CV methods and constructing Popperian tests of CV generically, a broad-based research program is recommended, including proliferation of methods, mapping the performance characteristics of CV, and combining contingent and observed choice data.