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 8

WP(11/2025)474. Breaking New Ground in Heritage Valuation: A Comprehensive Use of Discrete Choice Experiments

Authors: Czajkowski Mikołaj, Jusypenko Bartosz, Ben White
Heritage authorities must decide which places to protect, but valuation studies usually examine a single named site. We develop a common way to describe buildings, historic sites and landscapes, and test it in a choice experiment with 1,613 Victorian…

WP474. Breaking New Ground in Heritage Valuation: A Comprehensive Use of Discrete Choice Experiments

Heritage authorities must decide which places to protect, but valuation studies usually examine a single named site. We develop a common way to describe buildings, historic sites and landscapes, and test it in a choice experiment with 1,613 Victorian respondents. The results show higher mean willingness to pay for nineteenth-century age and excellent condition in all three categories, while the value attached to distance differs across them. Images also affect stated values in the later survey designs, although many individual image comparisons remain uncertain. We show how the estimated characteristics combine in an illustrative courthouse profile. A shared set of characteristics makes comparisons possible, but it does not make the monetary values interchangeable or establish that they transfer to new places. The framework can help structure heritage appraisal while making those limits explicit.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.33138/2957-0506.2025.11.474
Czajkowski Mikołaj, Jusypenko Bartosz, Ben White
cultural heritage historic preservation non-market valuation discrete choice experiment public preferences

WP(4/2020)310. "I go, I pay". The role of experience in recognizing the need for public financing of cultural goods

Authors: Jusypenko Bartosz, Wiśniewska Aleksandra
Public financing of culture is a common phenomenon - especially in European countries. Empirical studies reveal that it is socially acceptable and even desirable. However, a question arises: what factors influence support for such a cultural policy? …

WP310. "I go, I pay". The role of experience in recognizing the need for public financing of cultural goods

Public financing of culture is a common phenomenon - especially in European countries. Empirical studies reveal that it is socially acceptable and even desirable. However, a question arises: what factors influence support for such a cultural policy? The study shows that the most important determinant is related to experience - past and future, anticipated. People who often and intensively consume various cultural goods, are also more willing to subsidize them through the public sector. The results of the study not only show that regular contact with culture has a positive impact on understanding the important role of the state in shaping the cultural sector, but also that the attitude towards cultural policy changes rapidly after crossing a certain threshold of experience.


Jusypenko Bartosz, Wiśniewska Aleksandra
cultural policy cultural goods experienced goods rational addiction non-market valuation

WP(3/2019)288. ‘Quality food’ for cultural policies. Quality attributes in the non-market stated-preference based valuation of cultural goods

Authors: Wiśniewska Aleksandra
Evidence-based policies require well-established research and reliable data. One of the major difficulties in delivering 'good quality food' for cultural policies lies in measuring culture. Stated preference based non-market valuation is one …

WP288. ‘Quality food’ for cultural policies. Quality attributes in the non-market stated-preference based valuation of cultural goods

Evidence-based policies require well-established research and reliable data. One of the major difficulties in delivering 'good quality food' for cultural policies lies in measuring culture. Stated preference based non-market valuation is one of the privileged tools to reveal the benefits cultural goods deliver to the society for cost-benefit analysis. The prevalent problem in this kind of research are poorly defined, ambiguous goods. The challenge lies in describing their quality attributes. The article's goal is to review the hitherto uses of quality measurements of arts and culture in stated preference based non-market valuation research, mostly dedicated to performing arts and cultural heritage.


Wiśniewska Aleksandra
quality measurement stated preferences non-market valuation performing arts cultural heritage cultural policy

WP(22/2018)281. Publicly funded cultural institutions – a comparative economic valuation study

Authors: Wiśniewska Aleksandra, Budziński Wiktor, Czajkowski Mikołaj
Cultural institutions are the main creators of cultural goods and services and are responsible for their accessibility; cultural institutions are also the main beneficiaries of public funds for culture. The aim of this study is to evaluate the divisi…

WP281. Publicly funded cultural institutions – a comparative economic valuation study

Cultural institutions are the main creators of cultural goods and services and are responsible for their accessibility; cultural institutions are also the main beneficiaries of public funds for culture. The aim of this study is to evaluate the division of public resources into different branches of culture that are rooted in political 'adhocism' and historical dependencies. Based on the observed visitations and their costs, a two-stage budgeting model is employed to investigate the change in consumer surplus related to the loss of access to the markets of cinemas, museums, and theatres in Warsaw, the capital city of Poland. The institutions vary in terms of public good characteristics and importance as public bodies, expressed in terms of subsidies. The inclusion of the entire markets of institutions helps to overcome the embedding effect, which affects many single-site valuations. It also enables a comparison between cultural sectors, which is rare in cultural economics. We find that people assign a positive value to the accessibility of all institutions and groups of institutions. However, the estimated value generated by each type of cultural institution is not aligned with the division of subsidies between these markets. For theatres, the total benefits exceed public support. Museums are found to deliver a lower level of benefits to society; the value they generate is outweighed by the subsidies they receive. Cinemas receive little direct support; however, they are valued twice as much as museums. The problem of cultural policy lies in the division of resources, which is much more equal relative to benefits attributed to groups of museums and theatres. At the same time the division between single institutions within all three branches of culture is unequal, with the significant exclusion of non-public institutions.


DOI: http://doi.org.10.26405/WP/WNE/2018/281/022
Wiśniewska Aleksandra, Budziński Wiktor, Czajkowski Mikołaj
cultural policy funding the arts theatre museum cinema non-market valuation

WP(1/2017)230. Stated Preference valuation methods: an evolving tool for understanding choices and informing policy

Authors: Hanley Nick, Czajkowski Mikołaj
We examine the value of Stated Preference (SP) valuation methods as part of the environmental economist's toolbox. We review a number of policy design issues where we believe SP methods have advantages over alternative approaches. We also discuss…

WP230. Stated Preference valuation methods: an evolving tool for understanding choices and informing policy

We examine the value of Stated Preference (SP) valuation methods as part of the environmental economist's toolbox. We review a number of policy design issues where we believe SP methods have advantages over alternative approaches. We also discuss the role of SP methods in exploring a few aspects of peoples' preferences and values which have wider implications for economics and behavioral sciences: (a) the effects of information, learning and knowledge; (b) testing the standard model of compensatory, rational choice; (c) the influence of behavioural levers such as social norms; and (d) the role of "deep" drivers of preference heterogeneity, such as personality and emotions. We also review what is known about the extent to which hypothetical choices reveal something about people's true preferences. Finally, we speculate on some areas where SP methods may be useful in the future.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.26405/WP/WNE/2017/230/001
Hanley Nick, Czajkowski Mikołaj
stated preferences non-market valuation environmental economics methods information choice social norms preference heterogeneity

WP(36/2015)184. Utilizing the Discrete Choice Experiment Approach for Designing a Socially Efficient Cultural Policy: The case of municipal theaters in Warsaw

Authors: Wiśniewska Aleksandra, Czajkowski Mikołaj
While public support for culture, and performing arts in particular has become a less self-evident privilege all over Europe than in the past, the economic evidence for benefits a society gains from those goods has become essential for both of the fo…

WP184. Utilizing the Discrete Choice Experiment Approach for Designing a Socially Efficient Cultural Policy: The case of municipal theaters in Warsaw

While public support for culture, and performing arts in particular has become a less self-evident privilege all over Europe than in the past, the economic evidence for benefits a society gains from those goods has become essential for both of the following: scientific research in the area of cultural economics and cultural policy. Although the non-market valuation has been employed as a tool for measuring social benefits generated by cultural resources, the budget constraint has not been considered in most studies regarding the performing arts. Due to that constraint, the crucial question that decision-makers have to answer is then not “whether to finance” or “how big the support should be”, but rather “how to allocate scarce resources”. The aim of our study is to investigate socially preferred ways of allocating public resources in the context of the types of performances offered by municipal theaters in Warsaw. The problem investigated is a current issue for local policy-making, but in a broader sense, it illustrates how state-of-the-art stated preference methods could be employed to support cultural policy. We find that inhabitants of Warsaw assign positive value to the broader accessibility of municipal theaters, and their willingness to pay for making the theaters a truly public good (by introducing a program of highly discounted tickets) exceeds the costs of such a policy. However, we also find that the cost-benefit relationship varies across theaters with different types of plays in their repertories. Our results imply a different level of socially efficient support for experimental, drama, children’s and entertainment theaters.


Wiśniewska Aleksandra, Czajkowski Mikołaj
cultural economics theater non-market valuation discrete choice experiment public expenditures

WP(7/2015)155. Is the income elasticity of the willingness to pay for pollution control constant?

Authors: Barbier Edward S., Czajkowski Mikołaj, Hanley Nick
This paper explores both theoretically and empirically whether or not the willingness to pay (WTP) for pollution control varies with income. Our model indicates that the income elasticity of the marginal WTP for pollution reduction is only constant u…

WP155. Is the income elasticity of the willingness to pay for pollution control constant?

This paper explores both theoretically and empirically whether or not the willingness to pay (WTP) for pollution control varies with income. Our model indicates that the income elasticity of the marginal WTP for pollution reduction is only constant under very restrictive conditions, which are not necessary for an environmental Kuznets curve relationship between pollution and income. Our empirical analysis tests the null hypothesis that the elasticity of the WTP for pollution control with respect to income is constant, employing a multi-country contingent valuation study of eutrophication reduction in the Baltic Sea. Our findings reject this hypothesis, and estimate an income elasticity of the WTP for eutrophication control of 0.1 - 0.2 for low-income respondents and 0.6 - 0.7 for high-income respondents. Thus, our empirical results suggest that the elasticity is not constant and always less than one.


Barbier Edward S., Czajkowski Mikołaj, Hanley Nick
Baltic Sea benefit transfer environmental Kuznets curve eutrophication income elasticity of willingness to pay non-market valuation

WP(29/2013)114. Switching Costs and Network Effects - How Much Do they Really Matter in Mobile Telecommunications?

Authors: Czajkowski Mikołaj, Sobolewski Maciej
Our study focuses on the identification and the measurement of switching costs and network effects in mobile telecommunications. Although these two phenomena create similar consumer lock-in mechanisms, there are no empirical studies that integrate th…

WP114. Switching Costs and Network Effects - How Much Do they Really Matter in Mobile Telecommunications?

Our study focuses on the identification and the measurement of switching costs and network effects in mobile telecommunications. Although these two phenomena create similar consumer lock-in mechanisms, there are no empirical studies that integrate them into one model of subscriber's behavior. Our study fills this gap by applying stated preference valuation methods to a representative sample of individual mobile phone users in Poland. We find that number portability can be attributed to only approximately 50% of the total switching costs associated with changing either the provider or the service and the remaining part is associated with status quo inertia. Additionally, we show that because network effects play an important role in service valuation, they lead to strengthening the lock-in mechanisms even further. Our study provides the first empirical measurements of the relative importance of these simultaneous effects and provides the estimates of their monetary value.


Czajkowski Mikołaj, Sobolewski Maciej
Switching costs network effects mobile telecommunications mobile number portability brand valuation stated preference non-market valuation discrete choice experiment random parameters multinomial logit model
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