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Farmers’ willingness to pay for a digital extension tool in Sri Lanka

An economic application of list experiments

Year of publication 2025

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 40 p.

Author Petersson-Wilhelm, B.; Schwab, B.; Burrone, S.;

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Book (series)

ISBN 978-92-5-140264-1

Series title FAO Agricultural Development Economics Working Paper

Series number No. 25-12

To cite or share https://doi.org/10.4060/cd7457en

Synopsis (short abstract) List experiments utilize indirect survey questions to reduce social desirability bias in measures of sensitive behaviours and sentiments. While often used to assess retrospective behaviour or opinions of respondents, list experiments have not been widely applied to assessing “deep” parameters of economic models, such as willingness to pay. Common stated preference methods of estimating willingness to pay may be impacted by social desirability bias, particularly when a product has been provided to survey recipients for free. List experiments can uncover the share of respondents willing to pay a given price while reducing social desirability bias. Repeating the method at a variety of prices recovers a partial demand curve. This study discusses the conditions required to satisfy the list experiment validity assumptions and demonstrates the method in an e-extension platform randomized control trial in Sri Lanka. We show that the “no design effect” assumption for list experiments requires that the budget constraint for a household be non-binding. Under conditions where that assumption is likely to hold, we find direct estimates overstate willingness to pay at low prices. Our findings suggest list experiments may provide a cheap method of more accurately assessing the typically large share of respondents unwilling to pay any non-zero-sum (extensive margin) but are less effective at reducing bias from exaggerated demand (intensive margin).

Cite this content as:

Peterson-Wilhelm, B., Schwab, B. & Burrone, S. 2025. Farmers' willingness to pay for a digital extension tool in Sri Lanka – An economic application of list experiments. FAO Agricultural Development Economics Working Paper 25-12. Rome, FAO.

https://doi.org/10.4060/cd7457en

Language English

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