A direct means of estimating willingness to pay based on stated preferences of consumers in the situation with the project. Contingent valuation estimates can be used to provide an estimate of the economic value of incremental nontraded outputs and inputs, especially those, such as environmental effects, for which there is no direct market information.
A survey-based method to establish individuals' willingness to pay for a therapy.
Contingent valuation is a survey-based economic technique for the valuation of non-market resources, typically environmental areas. While these resources do give people utility, certain aspects of them do not have a market value (price) as they are not directly sold--for example, people receive benefit from a beautiful view of a mountain, but it would be tough to value. Contingent valuation surveys are one technique which is used to measure these aspects.