Willingness to pay for green electricity : a review of the contingent valuation literature and its sources of error

CITATION: Oerlemans, L. A. G., Chan, K. Y. & Volschenk, J. 2016. Willingness to pay for green electricity: a review of the contingent valuation literature and its sources of error. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 66:875-885, doi:10.1016/j.rser.2016.08.054.The original publication is available at http://www.sciencedirect.comENGLISH SUMMARY : Contingent valuation is widely used due to its flexibility in valuing a wide variety of nonmarket goods. Although this method has important benefits, its validity and reliability are often criticised. This paper reviews the literature on the use of contingent valuation for measuring willingness to pay (WTP) for electricity generated from renewable energy sources (green electricity). A literature review, conducted on a sample of 51 peer-reviewed studies, shows that the vast majority of contingent evaluation studies stems from developed economies. Furthermore, most frequently used WTP elicitation techniques are open-ended and dichotomous choice approaches, which tend to produce varying levels of WTP. Studies dealing with the antecedents of WTP are predominantly inspired by the theory of reasoned action or by its extension, the theory of planned behaviour. This paper identifies five common errors in contingent valuation methods and discusses a number of remedies to deal with these errors in WTP research.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032116304877Pre-prin