Willingness to Pay or Intention to Pay: The Attitude-Behavior Relationship in Contingent Valuation

This study describes a conceptual model of the attitude-behavior relationship involved in the process of contingent valuation in an economic behavior context. Explanatory attitudinal factors derived from the Azjen-Fishbein model of attitude-behavior relationship include a subjective norm, behavioral intention, and attitude toward the behavior. An illustration is provided using data collected from a survey of 1938 rural residents about their willingness- to-pay (WTP) for accept changes in individual- vs state-level water quality improvements. Consistent with hypotheses suggesting that more salient attitudes more directly influence behavioral intentions, environmental attitudes enhanced explanatory power of the WTP model for individual changes more than for state changes. Implications for the role of environmental attitudes among consumers of environmental goods in contingent valuation and WTP studies are discussed.