Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
9552620 | Information Economics and Policy | 2005 | 24 Pages |
Abstract
Constraints on public budgets oblige libraries to document their value. This paper presents a contingent valuation study eliciting how a random sample of Norwegian citizens values public libraries, applying two recently developed elicitation approaches. Possible and actual protest bids are differentiated and a split sample used, eliciting both willingness to pay (WTP) and to accept (WTA). An overwhelming majority perceives they have property rights to a local library, justifying the application of WTA. Estimates of WTA among non-protesters are higher than estimates of WTP but only by a factor of about 4. Several measures of average valuation are derived, all being higher than average costs.
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Authors
Svanhild Aabø,