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Contingent Valuation Focus Groups: Insights from Ethnographic Interview Techniques

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

Robert J. Johnston ,
Thomas F. Weaver ,
Lynn A. Smith  and
Stephen K. Swallow
Robert J. Johnston
Affiliation:
Apogee Research Inc.
Thomas F. Weaver
Affiliation:
Apogee Research Inc.
Lynn A. Smith
Affiliation:
Apogee Research Inc.
Stephen K. Swallow
Affiliation:
Department of Resource Economics, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881
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Abstract

Despite the many important uses (and potential abuses) of focus groups in survey design, the CV literature presents few guidelines to aid moderators in their interaction with focus group participants. This paper draws on the theory and practice of ethnographic interviewing to introduce general guidelines that can improve focus groups as an aid to CV research. The proposed guidelines illustrate types of questions that should reduce speculation and moderator-introduced bias in focus group responses, and improve the correspondence between focus group responses and actual behavior. The paper illustrates these ethnographic guidelines through a CV application concerning watershed resources.

Type
Articles
Information
Agricultural and Resource Economics Review , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , April 1995 , pp. 56 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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