The elicitation format is a crucial aspect of Contingent Valuation (CV) surveys and can impact their reliability. This paper contributes to the extensive debate on WTP (Willingness To Pay) elicitation formats by assessing whether the Circular Payment Card (CPC) can reduce anchoring on respondents' previous answers under multiple elicitation questions. This new format uses a visual pie-chart representation without start or end points: respondents spin the circular card in any direction until they find the section that best matches their WTP. We used a CV survey based on two ways of reducing risks associated with flooding, each randomly presented first to half of the respondents, to test the absolute performance of CPC. We presented a second survey on two social insurance schemes for subjects currently uninsured to respondents randomly split into three subgroups. Each group's WTP was elicited using one of three formats: Open-Ended (OE), standard Payment Card (PC) and the new CPC. The two insurance schemes were always proposed in the same order, and we assessed the relative performance of CPC by comparing anchoring across respondents. Our results provide evidence that CPC is likely to reduce anchoring in multiple elicitation questions and that respondents may rely on different heuristic decisions when giving WTP in the OE and in the two PC formats.

This article analyses the scope for individual adaptation to flood risk in the South of France. We collected data concerning the implementation of individual adaptation measures and the willingness to pay for individual and collective measures in a survey of 418 respondents living in two flood‐prone areas. First, we observed the current level of adaptation and compared the willingness to pay for individual versus collective measures. We then analysed the drivers of implementation and of willingness to pay. We then provide a cost–benefit analysis of individual adaptation. The survey results show that, despite willingness to pay for reduced risk, few adaptation measures have been implemented. Perceptions of hazards and of damage are important drivers but have different influences: the first favours the implementation of measures; the second increases willingness to pay for measures. Finally, our cost–benefit analysis suggests that completely dry proofing a house up to a height of one metre may not be economically viable. This calls for the promotion of cheaper and more cost‐efficient measures.

Revealed and stated preference techniques are widely used to assess willingness to pay (WTP) for non-market goods as input to public and private decision-making. However, individuals first have to satisfy subsistence needs through market good consumption, which affects their ability to pay. We provide a methodological framework and derive a simple ex post adjustment factor to account for this effect. We quantify its impacts on the WTP for non-market goods and the ranking of projects theoretically, numerically and empirically. This confirms that non-adjusted WTP tends to be plutocratic: the views of the richest -whatever they are -are more likely to impact decision-making, potentially leading to ranking reversal between projects. We also suggest that the subsistence needs-based adjustment factor we propose has a role to play in value transfer procedures.The overall goal is a better representation of the entire population's preferences with regard to non-market goods.