The Becker–DeGroot–Marschak method (BDM), named after Gordon M. Becker, Morris H. DeGroot and Jacob Marschak for the 1964 Behavioral Science paper, "Measuring Utility by a Single-Response Sequential Method" is an incentive-compatible procedure used in experimental economics to measure willingness to pay (WTP).
In another common method, the subject is presented with a series of sequentially increasing or random-order monetary amounts.
From the subject's perspective, the method is equivalent to a Vickrey auction against an unknown bidder.
BDM's incentive compatibility is a well established theoretical result, and it relies on similar arguments to that of the Vickrey auction.
[6] In 1797 he asked a publisher how much he would be willing to pay for his new poem Hermann and Dorothea and revealed that he had sent a sealed letter to his lawyer with a reserve amount.