Working Papers

The WNE Working Papers series has been published by the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw since 2008.

The WNE Working Papers series provides a fast, open channel for disseminating research conducted at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw. The papers hosted here are working versions (pre-prints) and may evolve as authors refine their analyses, incorporate feedback, or progress through formal peer-review. What you read is the current version released by the authors, timestamped and assigned DOI/ISSN identifiers to ensure precise citation and version tracking. Copyright remains with the authors, who may, at any time, upload a revised file or add a note directing readers to a later, peer-reviewed publication.

The Working Papers series accepts articles by research employees of the Faculty and publications from conferences organised at the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw. Articles should be original research papers which have not been previously published, on the subject of economics.

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Number of Results 5

WP(15/2026)509. Capturing zero-price effects in stated choice surveys: implications for willingness-to-pay and welfare

Authors: Tjiong Jeff, Dekker Thijs, Hess Stephane, Giergiczny Marek, Ojeda-Cabral Manuel, Czajkowski Mikołaj
Stated choice surveys commonly used in public policy appraisal – such as in transport or environmental economics – often contrast a ‘free’ status quo alternative against a range of (policy) interventions which can be implement…

WP509. Capturing zero-price effects in stated choice surveys: implications for willingness-to-pay and welfare

Stated choice surveys commonly used in public policy appraisal – such as in transport or environmental economics – often contrast a ‘free’ status quo alternative against a range of (policy) interventions which can be implemented at a cost. Limited attention has, however, been paid to the fact that the ‘free’ nature of the status quo (SQ) alternative may make the SQ alternative overly attractive due to the zero-price (ZP) effect. The ZP effect is a well-established notion in behavioural economics explaining the phenomenon that individuals tend to over-react to free alternatives. We present an experimental design setup allowing the separation of the ZP effect from the SQ effect together with the identification of non-linear sensitivities to costs. Choices made by students between different mobile broadband packages are used for illustrational purposes. Our analysis shows that the ZP effect is significant and the observed preference to remain in the SQ is largely due to the ZP effect. In practice, this may lead to biased welfare estimates for public policy packages if the ZP effect is not explicitly accounted for. Moreover, we also show that misspecification of the functional form for cost can lead to significant bias in WTP estimates and the ZP and SQ effects.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.33138/2957-0506.2026.15.509
Tjiong Jeff, Dekker Thijs, Hess Stephane, Giergiczny Marek, Ojeda-Cabral Manuel, Czajkowski Mikołaj
zero-price effect stated choice experiments status quo bias willingness-to-pay welfare analysis discrete choice modelling non-linear cost sensitivity Box-Cox transformation mobile broadband

WP(26/2020)332. Predicting uptake of a malignant catarrhal fever vaccine by pastoralists in northern Tanzania: opportunities for improving livelihoods and ecosystem health

Authors: Decker Catherine, Hanley Nick, Czajkowski Mikołaj, Morrison Thomas A., Keyyu Julius, Munishi Linus, Lankester Felix, Cleaveland Sarah
Malignant Catarhal Fever (MCF), transmitted from wildebeest to cattle, threatens livestock-based livelihoods and food security in many areas of Africa. Many herd owners reduce transmission risks by moving cattle away from infection hot-spots, but thi…

WP332. Predicting uptake of a malignant catarrhal fever vaccine by pastoralists in northern Tanzania: opportunities for improving livelihoods and ecosystem health

Malignant Catarhal Fever (MCF), transmitted from wildebeest to cattle, threatens livestock-based livelihoods and food security in many areas of Africa. Many herd owners reduce transmission risks by moving cattle away from infection hot-spots, but this imposes considerable economic burdens on their households. The advent of a partially-protective vaccine for cattle opens up new options for disease prevention. In a study of pastoral households in northern Tanzania, we use stated preference choice modelling to investigate how pastoralists would likely respond to the availability of such a vaccine. We show a high probability of likely vaccine uptake by herd owners, declining at higher vaccine costs. Acceptance increases with more efficaceous vaccines, in situations where vaccinated cattle are ear-tagged, and where vaccine is delivered through private vets. Through analysis Normalized Density Vegetation Index (NDVI) data, we show that the reported MCF incidence over 5 years is highest in areas with greatest NDVI variability and in smaller herds. Trends towards greater rainfall variability suggest that MCF avoidance through traditional movement of cattle away from wildebeest will become more challenging and that demand for an MCF vaccine will likely increase.


Decker Catherine, Hanley Nick, Czajkowski Mikołaj, Morrison Thomas A., Keyyu Julius, Munishi Linus, Lankester Felix, Cleaveland Sarah
vaccine cattle Malignant Catarhal Fever Tanzania stated preference choice modelling wilingness to pay

WP(13/2018)272. Social norms and pro-environment behaviours: heterogeneous response to signals

Authors: Czajkowski Mikołaj, Zagórska Katarzyna, Hanley Nick
Previous research on pro-environment behaviours demonstrated an effect of communicating social norms to subjects. In this paper, we extend this work by isolating the effects of information about (i) the absolute level (strength) of the norm (ii) its …

WP272. Social norms and pro-environment behaviours: heterogeneous response to signals

Previous research on pro-environment behaviours demonstrated an effect of communicating social norms to subjects. In this paper, we extend this work by isolating the effects of information about (i) the absolute level (strength) of the norm (ii) its geographic proximity (iii) whether the norm is stated in relative terms. We also show how previous pro-environmental behaviours interact with social norm information. The context is a stated preference choice experiment on recycling behaviours by households in Poland. The main finding to emerge is that social norm effects on preferences seem to be very context-dependent; there is no evidence of generalizable effects which would be useful to policy designers.


DOI: http://doi.org.10.26405/WP/WNE/2018/272/013
Czajkowski Mikołaj, Zagórska Katarzyna, Hanley Nick
recycling social norms stated preferences choice modelling

WP(30/2016)221. Linking perceived choice complexity with scale heterogeneity in discrete choice experiments: home heating in Finland

Authors: Ruokamo Enni, Czajkowski Mikołaj, Hanley Nick, Juutinen Artti, Svento Rauli
Choosing a specific heating system is a complex and difficult decision for homeowners as there exists a wide array of heating technologies with different characteristics that one can consider before purchasing. We include multiple heating technologie…

WP221. Linking perceived choice complexity with scale heterogeneity in discrete choice experiments: home heating in Finland

Choosing a specific heating system is a complex and difficult decision for homeowners as there exists a wide array of heating technologies with different characteristics that one can consider before purchasing. We include multiple heating technologies and attributes in our Choice Experiment design and explore the effect of perceived choice complexity on the randomness of choices. In particular, we investigate how different self-evaluated factors of choice complexity affect mean scale and scale variance. Our findings suggest that perceived choice complexity has a systematic impact on the parameters of econometric models of choice. However, there are differences between alternative self-evaluated complexity-related covariates. Results indicate that individuals who report that answering the choice tasks was difficult have less deterministic choices. Perceptions of the realism of home heating choice options also affect scale and scale variance.


Ruokamo Enni, Czajkowski Mikołaj, Hanley Nick, Juutinen Artti, Svento Rauli
Home heating Choice experiment Choice modelling Scale heterogeneity Generalized mixed logit Complexity

WP(10/2012)76. More random or more deterministic choices? The effects of information on preferences for biodiversity conservation

Authors: Czajkowski Mikołaj, Hanley Nick
For many years, stated preference researchers have been interested in the effects of information on willingness to pay for environmental goods. Within the random utility model, information about an environmental good might impact on preferences and o…

WP76. More random or more deterministic choices? The effects of information on preferences for biodiversity conservation

For many years, stated preference researchers have been interested in the effects of information on willingness to pay for environmental goods. Within the random utility model, information about an environmental good might impact on preferences and on scale (error variance), both between and within samples of choices. In this paper, we extend the G-MNL model to investigate the effects of different information sets on choices over the management of biodiversity in the UK, looking specifically at moorlands managed for red grouse shooting. Specifically, we make the individual scale parameter a function of observable (dataset-specific) characteristics. Our results show that changing information sets results in significant differences in the mean scale between datasets, and in the variance of scale. Respondents are more deterministic in their choices and show lower within-sample scale heterogeneity in the alternative information treatment. Changes in information provision also effect willingness to pay estimates, reducing the value people place on the conservation of two iconic birds of prey. The methods used will also be of interest to researchers who need to combine choice experiment data sets.


Czajkowski Mikołaj, Hanley Nick
choice modelling information effects scale scale heterogeneity G-MNL heather moorland management raptor conservation combined SP-RP
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