Hypothetical versus real preferences: results from an opportunistic field experiment

✍ Scribed by Stirling Bryan; Sue Jowett

• Book ID: 102233078
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 105 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1057-9230
• DOI: 10.1002/hec.1563

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Over recent years there has been renewed interest in cost‐benefit analysis (CBA) in health care but the ‘hypothetical bias’ concern (i.e. the belief that WTP values overstate real preferences) is a remaining anxiety. This paper reports new empirical data comparing hypothetical and real preferences in a health care context, using the clinical setting of patient self‐management (PSM) of anticoagulation (warfarin) therapy. The data offer considerable support for the use of WTP and CBAs in a self‐management health care context; the hypothetical bias hypothesis is not supported by our data. The generalisability of these results to other health care settings needs to be explored. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.