Further Investigation of Voluntary Contribution Contingent Valuation: Fair Share, Time of Contribution, and Respondent Uncertainty

In the spirit of Randallʹs [Resource Energy Econom. 20, 197–206 (1998)] argument for focusing on mapping the performance characteristics of alternative contingent valuation designs and formats, the focus of this study is on three tests of the voluntary contribution mechanism. We investigate the response effects of three crossed treatments: (1) an informational treatment that randomly varies the total cost of providing the good to identify possible fair share effects; (2) a split-sample informational treatment that makes the time of contribution explicit; and (3) elicitation formats that allow respondent uncertainty, both as a follow-up to a dichotomous choice question, and asked directly in a split-sample treatment.