Using Willingness to Pay and Willingness to Accept to Value Farmland Preservation under Ambiguous Property Rights and Preference Uncertainty

We use a paired-sample binary choice experiment to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept (WTA) values when land is converted from agricul-ture to developed uses in Alberta, Canada. Validated principles for stated preference are followed in scenario design, elicitation for-mat, experimental design, and ancillary ques-tions. Preference uncertainty is addressed through alternative calibration of uncertain responses. Reliability and incentive compat-ibility measures indicate that respondents found both WTP and WTA scenarios to be plausible and incentive compatible. WTA-WTP value gaps are smaller than most previ-ous studies, with consequentiality increasing WTA, WTP, and the gap between WTA and WTP. (JEL Q51, Q58)