Comments on Chilton and Hutchinson: Beyond Measurement Issues in the Focus Group Method

Comments on the article by S. M. Chilton and W. G. Hutchinson (see record 1999-11577-005) which discussed the usefulness of qualitative data to the contingent valuation process in general and the use and applicability of the focus group method to economic psychology in particular. The present author agrees that there has not been enough explicit discussion either of the place of focus groups in economic research nor of the difficult methodological issues involved. A broader set of approaches to the use of focus groups is considered.