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International audience; The tourism sector has voluntarily undertaken several initiatives to boost customer confidence in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, in the hotel industry, three different strategies have been implemented: sending no COVID-19 safety signal; sending a moderate signal through a charter; or sending a strong signal through a label. This study aims to identify the main drivers of the hotels’ choice among these strategies and to analyze the influence of their choice on price setting. We estimate a system of three equations (hotel pricing, star rating, COVID-19 safety signal) on a sample of 418 rated hotels in the Hauts-de-France region. Results support three main findings: 1) star rating positively correlates with COVID-19 certification; 2) COVID-19 certification has a strongly negative impact on hotel prices; 3) star rating moderates positively the effect of COVID-19 certification on prices. Furthermore, error terms between the star rating level and COVID-19 certification equations are strongly correlated. Hence unobserved common factors play a role in the adoption of these quality signals. Our findings are consistent with the idea that managers implementing safety signaling strategies are more worried about recovery speed after lockdowns.

International audience; Travel cost (TC) data are often collected on-site, raising the question of on-site sampling bias. In addition, the motivations behind visiting a recreational area are diverse and differ across individuals, with the potential implications that preferences for trips are heterogenous. This is particularly true for recreational fishing areas that include multiple sites and within which multiple fishing activities are pursued. Comparing four single-site negative binomial models, this paper shows the importance of accounting for on-site sampling and heterogenous preferences simultaneously. The magnitude of the bias resulting from addressing these two issues separately is examined in terms of variation in consumer surplus, predicted mean trip and price elasticity. The paper further proposes an empirical strategy that addresses the issue of missing income bias. This bias occurs when respondents who do not report their income are significantly different in terms of their trip behavior from those with an average income level.

International audience; Obtaining the support of affected stakeholders is a crucial first step to successful implementation of any public policy, including flood mitigation policies. Public support for flood mitigation policies is largely influenced by flood risk perceptions and flood risk perceptions are, in turn, shaped by a multitude of factors. This paper explores the impact of the determinants of risk perception on willingness to pay for flood risk prevention in Dunkerque (France) using a contingent valuation survey. We find that whether or not respondents include their home within their perceived flood risk areas, trust in flood mitigation measures, environmental beliefs and socio-economic factors are strong predictors of public support for flood risk prevention, whereas actual distance of a respondent’s home to the flood source, knowledge of flood risk, prior experience and trust in local authorities have a limited influence. Policy implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Most environmental economists argue that direct experience with the good being valuated, or with similar goods, is a precondition for providing valid willingness to pay (WTP) responses to contingent valuation questions. Two questions are posed in this article. The first is whether previous use experience of a resource (Sene nature reserve) similar to that being valuated (future nature reserves) and located in the same geographical area (Gulf of Morbihan) impacts on WTP. The second is whether accounting for the endogeneity of direct experience matters in the estimation of WTP. We find that respondents who have not experienced the Sene nature reserve provide value estimates that are statistically comparable to that of respondents who have experienced it. Our assumption is that respondents have acquired sufficient and adequate experience of future nature reserves from the questionnaire that experience obtained by experiencing the Sene nature reserve was not necessary for making a valid value formulation. Hen...