What Are the Essential Qualities of Domestic Biogas Plants? Selecting Attributes for a Discrete Choice Experiment

Abstract

The paper discusses steps through which the selection of attributes of domestic biogas plants for use in a discrete choice experiment (DCE) can be implemented. From an initial list of more than 20 biogas plant attributes, the paper discusses the prioritization of nine which were subjected to two conjoint exercises featuring university students and researchers. These conjoint exercises conducted online ranked the most to the least important of nine attributes which could feature in a discrete choice experiment. The correlation between rankings by these groups of subjects is considered high enough to confirm consistency in the results. Gas production, installation cost, durability, maintenance cost, reliability and ability to translocate plants are the first six most important attributes in that order. These results are considered robust as input in a DCE designed for an audience of potential biogas plant users.

Keywords: conjoint analysis, choice experiment, attributes, ranking, focus group discussion

JEL Classification: Q51, Q13, Q57, Q12