Abstract
Have you ever wished that you were a superhero? If so, how much would you be willing to pay to become one? In this study, we measured the economic value of becoming a superhero or obtaining a superpower using a discrete choice experiment. We focused on four superpowers: mind-control, flight, teleportation, and supernatural physical strength and measured values for each power. Our results indicate that of the four powers, our participants valued teleportation the most.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
References
Gao, Z., & Schroeder, T. C. (2009). Effects of label information on consumer willingness-to-pay for food attributes. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 91(3), 795–809.
Jacquemet, N., Joule, R. V., Luchini, S., & Shogren, J. F. (2013). Preference elicitation under oath. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 65(1), 110–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2012.05.004
Khachatryan, H., Suh, D. H., Zhou, G., & Dukes, M. (2016). Sustainable urban landscaping: Consumer preferences and willingness to pay for turfgrass fertilizers. Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics, 65(3), 385–407.
Krinsky, I., & Robb, A. L. (1986). On Approximating the statistical properties of elasticities. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 68(4), 715–719.
Lee, C. P., Chertow, G. M., & Zenios, S. A. (2009). An empiric estimate of the value of life: updating the renal dialysis cost-effectiveness standard. Value in Health, 12(1), 80–87.
MaristPoll. (2011). Holy super powers, Batman! Mind reading and time travel top list. Available at: https://maristpoll.marist.edu/polls/28-holy-super-powers-batman-mind-reading-and-time-travel-top-list/.
O’Roark, B. (2017). Super-economics man! Using superheroes to teach economics. Journal of Economics Teaching, 2(1), 51–67.
Train, K. E. (2009). Discrete choice methods with simulation. Cambridge University Press.
TransImpact. (2022). The most desired superpowers around the U.S. Available at: https://transimpact.com/nextsights/superpower-survey/.
Zhang, X., Fang, Y., & Gao, Z. (2020). Accounting for Attribute Non-attendance (ANA) in Chinese consumers’ away-from-home sustainable salmon consumption. Marine Resource Economics, 35(3). https://doi.org/10.1086/709458
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hwang, J.J., Lee, D. Economic valuation of becoming a superhero. J Cult Econ (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-024-09513-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-024-09513-1