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Water pricing with household surveys: A study of acceptability and willingness to pay in Chongqing, China

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  • Wang, Hua
  • Xie, Jian
  • Li, Honglin

Abstract

In determining domestic water prices, policy makers frequently need to use demand-side information rather than only rely on supply-side data as previously did, and household surveys are often conducted to collect information on the demand side. This paper presents a multiple bounded discrete choice (MBDC) survey model for collecting information about acceptability of different water prices by different types of households and estimating households' willingness to pay for water service improvement. The results obtained from MBDC surveys can be directly utilized in the development of water pricing and subsidy policies. An empirical MBDC study is conducted in Chongqing, China, where domestic water service quality was seriously inadequate, but financial resources were insufficient to improve the service quality. With a survey of 1500 households in five suburban districts in Chongqing Municipality, this study shows that a significant increase in water price is economically feasible as long as the poorest households are properly subsidized. The analysis also indicates that the order in which hypothetical prices are presented to the respondents with the MBDC method can systematically affect the answers and should be taken into account when designing such survey instruments.

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  • Wang, Hua & Xie, Jian & Li, Honglin, 2010. "Water pricing with household surveys: A study of acceptability and willingness to pay in Chongqing, China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 136-149, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:21:y:2010:i:1:p:136-149
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    18. Marius Yapo & Jie He & Bruno Gagnon & Luc Savard & Roland Leduc, 2015. "La valeur économique pour l’amélioration de la qualité de l’eau: le cas de la rivière Magog et du lac Magog (Québec, Canada)," Cahiers de recherche 15-15, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    19. Kiprop, Jonah Kipsaat, 2015. "An Evaluation Of Farmers Willingness To Pay For Irrigation Water In Kerio Valley Basin Kenya," Research Theses 276443, Collaborative Masters Program in Agricultural and Applied Economics.
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