Estimation and Determinant Factors of Willingness to Pay for Improving Drinking Water Quality: A Case Study for Mazandaran Province

Subject Areas : Applied Economics

سعید  راسخی ¹ (مسئول مکاتبات)
سیده راهبه  حسینی طالعی ² (ندازد)

Received: 2011-08-11 Accepted : 2011-11-08 Published : 2012-03-20

Keywords: Water quality, Willing to Pay, Open and close ended methods, Determinant Factors, Mazandaran Province,

Abstract :

In this paper, data from a survey of 1300 households from four cities of Mazandaran province were used to study people's willingness to pay for improvements in drinking water quality. This aggregate willingness to pay can serve as an estimate of benefits to consumers from improvements in drinking water quality in the region. In this study, we asked the residents to express their preferences for quality of drinking water. The contingent valuation method was used to estimate willingness to pay using both open-ended and close-ended formats. We have also estimated the most important determinate factors of people's willingness to pay for improvements in quality of drinking water. Results of our research showed that: 1)       The willingness to pay is between 33,120 and 37,710 Rials a month per family and between 1,370 and 1,550 Rials per cubic meter of drinking water. 2)       The most important determinant factors of people's willingness to pay are: The size of the family, income, marital status, and the level of education