Abstract:
This study tests the stability of environmental preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) values using a discrete
choice experiment (DCE) across three countries pre and post the peak of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A DCE examining the public’s preferences for alternative environmental management plans on the high seas, in
the area of the Flemish Cap, was carried out in Canada, Scotland and Norway in late 2019 and was rerun in early
May 2020 shortly after the Covid-19 pandemic had officially peaked in the three countries. The same choice set
sequence is tested across the two periods, using different but nationally representative samples in each case.
Entropy balancing, a multivariate reweighting method, is used to achieve covariate balance between the pre and
post Covid samples in the analysis. The results suggest that both preferences and WTP remain relatively stable in
the face of a major public health crisis and economic upheaval.
