How much are people willing to pay for silence? A one and half bound DC CV estimate

Noise is a major urban problem that has not received much attention from environmental economists. In this paper we present an attempt to value a noise reduction program in a Spanish city. Contingent valuation has been applied using both one and one-half bound and open-ended question formats. The one and one-half bound question format avoids the bargaining processes which are inherent to multiple bound dichotomous choice question formats without the information loss associated with single bound formats. Through our estimations we have found that, first, noise has a negative value for urban residents and, second, that there is no embedding effect. We also are able to conclude that some type of biases (L H. guilt) tend to decrease or disappear with the implementation of the one and onehalf question format, however, other biases still prevail LH indignation.This paper is partially funded by a grant from the Plan de Formación y de Investigación y Desarrollo del Departamento de Educación del Gobierno de Navarra (1997-98), and CICYT grant number SEC96-0648