THREE ESSAYS ON WILLINGNESS TO PAY USING EXPERIMENTAL METHODS

This dissertation applies choice experiments and experimental auctions to real-world settings to elicit consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for non-market goods and services. The first essay investigates student preferences for alternative course delivery modes during COVID-19 at a representative U.S. land-grant university using choice experiments. Results reveal that students demanded tuition discounts of 30 percent for fully online and 7 percent for hybrid learning, with federal HEERF funding compensating for 63 percent of the total welfare loss during Fall 2020 to Spring 2022. The second essay examines how naming frames affect consumer WTP for cell-cultured meat alternatives (CCMAs) using choice experiments across the U.S., China, and South Korea. A shift from a less-meat frame (“lab-grown product derived from beef cells”) to a pro-meat frame (“cell-cultured ground beef”) significantly increased WTP in China (from $9.70 to $19.90 per pound), with smaller increases observed in the U.S. and South Korea. The third essay employs a clock-proxy auction to assess consumer valuation of bundled cell-cultivated salmon products paired with exclusive educational visit invitations. While treatment information highlighting production and nutritional benefits raised WTP for most bundles with target effect sizes of $10, $15, and $20 for one-, two-, and three-item packages that enter the allocation, it did not change the underlying negative synergy structure between the invitation and the salmon products. Together, these studies offer methodological contributions and policy insights on pricing, communication, and market design.