ABSTRACT
The development of contingent valuation methods (CVM) has helped direct some attention to the informational properties of recreation markets. A. A. Mitchell and R. T. Carson present a comprehensive typology of response effect biases in CVM studies which helps to more clearly distinguish between information effects and information biases. As in the CVM setting, information is both an important component of the market and a potential source of bias, if not property taken into account in the estimation procedures. The simple zonal model serves to illustrate how the failure to properly specify information can introduce a bias in the travel cost procedure. Information costs, like travel and time costs, vary with distance from the site and therefore were conveniently lumped with these other costs, without recognizing the problems this poses for travel cost analysis. Information is also a potentially powerful demand shifter in the form of advertising and promotion.
