Contingent valuation

Contingent valuation is when people are asked how much money they would pay for a particular thing or experience. It's kind of like when your mom asks you how much allowance you think you should get each week.

The tricky part is that sometimes the thing or experience doesn't have a set price already. For example, let's say a company wants to build a new park in your neighborhood. They might ask you how much money you would be willing to pay in taxes each year to fund the park's construction and maintenance.

Researchers use contingent valuation to find out how much people value things that can't be easily bought and sold, like clean air or endangered species. They ask people how much money they would be willing to pay to protect those things, even though they aren't actually buying the thing itself.

Overall, contingent valuation helps decision-makers understand how much people care about different things and can help them make better choices about how to allocate resources.