A theoretical comparison of the consumer surplus and the elasticities of demand as measures of motivational strength
The price and income elasticities of demand have been used by ethologists to estimate motivational strength. The consumer surplus is an alternative measure of motivation, deriving from microeconomic theory. We made a theoretical assessment of the validity and versatility of these indices. Two factors are expected to compromise the internal validity (veracity) of the elasticity […]
Consumer demand under commercial husbandry conditions: practical advice on measuring behavioural priorities in captive animals
In recent years, consumer demand studies have been used to objectively quantify the value that captive animals place on environmental resources. Considerable progress has been made in the development of effective methodologies to assess what resources are valued under controlled experimental conditions, but few of the findings from these studies have been implemented in commercial […]