The measurement of passive use values has become an important issue in environmental economics. In this paper we examine an extension or variant of contingent valuation, the choice experiment, which employs a series of questions with more than two alternatives that are designed to elicit responses that allow the estimation of preferences over attributes of an environmental state. We also combine the information from choice experiments and contingent valuation to test for differences in preferences and error variances arising from the two methods. Our results show that choice experiments have considerable merit in measuring passive use values. Copyright 1998, Oxford University Press.

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Seven parents of individuals with cerebral palsy who used augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices participated in a focus group discussion on the benefits and challenges of learning AAC technology. The focus group was conducted on the Internet over a 9-week period. Six major themes emerged from the discussion: (a) issues in the selection of AAC technology; (b) knowledge and skills needed to use AAC technology; (c) barriers to learning AAC technology; (d) teaching the individual; (e) educating society; and (f) recommendations to others. Important supports to learning how to make effective use of AAC technology included opportunities for individual exploration, use of the technology in role play activities, organized instruction, and opportunities for functional use in the community.