2.2. The valuation approach
The research applied dichotomous choice (DC) approach to elicit
respondents’ WTP in order to bypass the EIA. The DC approach was
used because the respondents could be facilitated to complete
a valuation process by choosing between “to pay” or “not to pay”
(Venkatachalam, 2004). The take-it-or-leave-it scenario was quite
similar to that encountered by consumers in their usual market
transactions (Asafu-Adjaye and Tapsuwan, 2008). Strategic
behavior may be minimized in the DC technique since it is
incentive-compatible (Carson et al., 1996, 2001; Hanemann, 1994;
Venkatachalam, 2004). A critical assumption was that the respon-dents were able to translate a wide range of criteria into a single
monetary amount representing their one-year despair.