- The trial lecture will start at 10:15.
- The public defence will start at 12:00.
The topic of the trial lecture is "The role of nonmarket valuation research in Norway and/or EU environmental policy".
The defence will take place on campus in Kristiansand, but it will also be possible to follow it digitally. Further information can be found below.
Assessment committee:
- Professor Jette Bredahl Jacobsen, University of Copenhagen
- Professor Christian A. Vossler, University of Tennessee
- Associate Professor Anne Wenche Emblem
Supervisors in the doctoral work:
- Professor Tobias Otterbring, UiA
- Professor Gorm Kipperberg, UiS
- PhD Henrik Lindhjem, Menon
- Professor Ståle Navrud, NMBU
Summary of thesis
This dissertation examines how changes in choice architecture in stated preference surveys influence individuals’ stated preferences for environmental goods. The work is motivated by the fact that cognitive limitations may cause real-world decisions to diverge from the predictions of standard neoclassical economic theory, which assumes fully informed and perfectly rational decision-makers. Even subtle changes to survey design—absent incentive effects—may act as cues for respondents and thereby influence their stated choices and willingness to pay.
Two experimental studies investigate the impact of small changes in choice architecture on stated willingness to pay in separate stated preference contexts. A third study provides a systematic review of the experimental choice architecture literature in economics and discusses how future research can deliver more robust evidence for use in behaviorally informed economic policymaking.
Overall, the dissertation advances stated preference research in environmental economics by demonstrating the effects of subtle choice architecture changes, estimating the welfare gains of removing marine litter from the seabed, and applying the choice architecture concept from psychology and behavioral economics to contextual changes in stated preference surveys without incentive implications
What to do as an online audience member
The disputation is open to the public. To follow the trial lecture and the public defence online, register on Zoom..
We ask online audience members to join no earlier than 10 minutes in advance. After these times, you can leave and rejoin the meeting at any time.
Opponent ex auditorio:
Deadline for the public to pose questions is during the break between the two opponents. Questions ex auditorio can be submitted to disputation chair or sent by e-mail to gunvor.guttormsen@uia.no
Questions?
- gunvor.guttormsen@uia.no
- Phone
- +47 38 14 16 48