• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Eliciting Willingness to Pay: Comparing Closed-Ended with Open-Ended and Payment Scale Formats
  • Contributor: Frew, Emma J.; Whynes, David K.; Wolstenholme, Jane L.
  • imprint: SAGE Publications, 2003
  • Published in: Medical Decision Making
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1177/0272989x03251245
  • ISSN: 0272-989X; 1552-681X
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <jats:p> Willingness to pay (WTP) is increasingly being used as a measure of valuation in health technology assessment. A variety of formats for eliciting values are available, although the relative virtues of each remain the subject of methodological controversy. This article compares valuation results obtained using a WTP survey instrument in a closed-ended format with those obtained from instruments using open-ended and payment scale formats. Samples of subjects were drawn from a general population, and all were asked to value the same intervention—alternative methods of screening for colorectal cancer. It was discovered that, whereas the open-ended and payment scale formats produced broadly similar valuations, the closed-ended format produced significantly higher WTP valuations and different justifications for those valuations. It is hypothesized that anchoring and yea-saying effects explain these differences and that the closed-ended format triggers a different response mode in subjects. </jats:p>