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We investigate discrepancies between willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept (WTA) in the context of a stated choice experiment. Using data on customer preferences for water services where respondents were able to both ‘sell’ and ‘buy’ the choice experiment attributes, we find evidence of non-linearity in the underlying utility function even though the range of attribute levels is relatively small. Our results reveal the presence of significant loss aversion in all the attributes, including price. We find the WTP–WTA schedule to be asymmetric around the current provision level and that the WTP–WTA ratio varies according to the particular provision change under consideration. Such reference point findings are of direct importance for practitioners and decision-makers using choice experiments for economic appraisal such as cost–benefit analysis, where failure to account for non-linearity in welfare estimates may significantly over- or under-state individual's preferences for gains and avoiding losses respectively.

RETIRING prime ministers are customarily offered an earldom. Because this often involves a change of name and historical oblivion, some of the greatest among them, men like Pitt and Gladstone and Churchill, have declined the honour. They understood that it is not names which give confidence in things, but things which give confidence in names. What would an Earl Chartwell of Westerham mean to future generations compared with the clarion voice we know as Churchill?

44. The Author and Title Catalogue should comprise entries for all books under authors' names, under titles where necessary, and under series if any, and should include references under any other names or words necessary to its use as an efficient means of reference : the whole arranged in one alphabetical sequence.