Skip to main content
TitleMeasuring the willingness to pay for tap water quality improvements : results of a contingent valuation survey in Pusan
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2013
AuthorsKwak, S-Y, Yoo, S-H, Kim, C
Paginationp. 1638 - 1652; 5 tab.
Date Published2013-10-10
PublisherMolecular Diversity Preservation International, Water Editorial Office, MDPI
Place PublishedBasel, Switzerland
Keywordskorea [south korea] busan, quality control, safe water supply, water quality, water quality monitoring, willingness to pay
Abstract

With increasing concern regarding health, people have developed an interest in the safety of drinking water. In this study, we attempt to measure the economic benefits of tap water quality improvement through a case study on Pusan, the second largest city in Korea. To this end, we use a scenario that the government plans to implement a new project of improving water quality and apply the contingent valuation (CV) method. A one-and-one-half bounded dichotomous choice question (OOHBDC) format is employed to reduce the potential for response bias in multiple-bound formats such as the double-bound model, while maintaining much of the efficiency. Moreover, we employ the spike model to deal with zero willingness to pay (WTP) responses from the OOHBDC CV survey. The CV survey of 400 randomly selected households was rigorously designed to comply with the guidelines for best-practice CV studies using person-to-person interviews. From the spike OOHBDC CV model, the mean WTP for the improvement was estimated to be KRW 2,124 (USD 2.2), on average, per household, per month. The value amounts to 36.6% of monthly water bill and 20.2% of production costs of water. The conventional OOHBDC model produces statistically insignificant mean WTP estimate and even negative value, but the OOHBDC spike model gives us statistically significant mean WTP estimate and fitted our data well. The WTP value to Pusan residents can be computed to be KRW 31.2 billion (USD 32.1 million) per year. [authors abstract]

NotesWith 29 references on p. 1650 - 1652
Custom 1202.90

Disclaimer

The copyright of the documents on this site remains with the original publishers. The documents may therefore not be redistributed commercially without the permission of the original publishers.

Back to
the top