A contingent valuation experiment about future particle accelerators at CERN

Investment in basic science is mainly supported by government funding, but little is known about citizens’ willingness to pay for large-scale projects. A survey to a representative sample of French taxpayers, designed as a contingent valuation experiment about a future particle accelerator for CERN, reveals that citizens’ willingness to pay is correlated with education, income, age, and–crucially–previous awareness, attitudes and interest in science. A (slim) majority of the participants would accept paying more in taxes for CERN. The estimated willingness to pay is higher than the current implicit per capita tax burden of French citizens. The experimental setting is novel and replicable for empirically assessing social attitudes towards science for other research infrastructures and countries.基础科学（basic science）研究的经费投入主要由政府资助，但目前学界对民众为大型科研项目付费的意愿仍知之甚少。本研究针对法国纳税人的代表性样本开展调查，以面向欧洲核子研究中心（CERN）未来粒子加速器项目的条件价值评估实验（contingent valuation experiment）为设计框架，结果显示民众的付费意愿与受教育程度、收入水平、年龄呈显著相关，且尤为关键的是，还与此前的科学认知、科学态度及科学兴趣密切关联。有微弱多数的受访对象愿意为支持欧洲核子研究中心项目缴纳更多税款。经估算的民众平均付费意愿，高于当前法国公民所承担的人均隐性税负水平。该实验设计具备创新性，且可复用于开展其他科研基础设施及其他国家场景下民众对科学的社会态度的实证评估。