The willingness to pay–willingness to accept gap revisited: The role of emotions and moral satisfaction

While many earlier studies have found that people’s maximum willingness to pay for having a good is often substantially lower than their minimum willingness to accept not having it, more recent experimental evidence suggests that this discrepancy vanishes for standard consumption goods when an incentive-compatible design without misconceptions is used. This paper hypothesises that there is nevertheless a discrepancy for goods with a perceived moral character, such as contributions to a good cause, and moreover that the reason for this discrepancy can largely be explained by differences in emotions and moral perceptions. The results from a real-money dichotomous-choice experiment, combined with measurements of emotions and morality, are consistent with these hypotheses.

► Many studies suggest that the WTP for a good is lower than the WTA for not having it. ► Recent evidence has questioned these findings. ► This paper hypothesizes that there is still a discrepancy for “moral goods”. ► The result from a real-money dichotomous-choice experiment confirms the hypothesis. ► The discrepancy is largely explained by measured emotions and moral perceptions.