We estimate the value of beach condition information in the hands of the public prior to taking beach trips. We designed and administered a contingent-valuation survey to the beachgoing population of the five U.S. Gulf Coast states that features a region-wide beach condition monitoring system currently proposed by the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS). We also test two hypothetical-bias mitigation strategies: a “budget and substitutes Q&A” treatment and a “cheap talk Q&A” treatment. We find that although respondents perceive that such a service would be beneficial, many perceive that the information provided is already available elsewhere, so the proportion of respondents willing to pay for access to the service is quite low. Nevertheless, we estimate that the aggregate value of the benefits associated with the service still exceeds the estimated cost of provision. After controlling for willingness to pay (WTP) response certainty, we find no significant treatment effects.

中文翻译：

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了解你的海滩：海滩状况信息的价值

在进行海滩旅行之前，我们会估计公众手中海滩状况信息的价值。我们针对美国墨西哥湾沿岸五个州的海滩人口设计并实施了一项临时评估调查，该调查具有目前由墨西哥湾沿海海洋观测系统 (GCOOS) 提出的全区域海滩状况监测系统。我们还测试了两种假设偏见缓解策略：“预算和替代问答”处理和“廉价谈话问答”处理。我们发现，虽然受访者认为这样的服务是有益的，但许多人认为所提供的信息在其他地方已经可用，因此愿意为访问服务付费的受访者比例很低。尽管如此，我们估计与服务相关的利益的总价值仍然超过估计的提供成本。在控制支付意愿 (WTP) 响应确定性后，我们发现没有显着的治疗效果。