IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v92y2016icp313-324.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social acceptance towards the air pollution in China: Evidence from public's willingness to pay for smog mitigation

Author

Listed:
  • Sun, Chuanwang
  • Yuan, Xiang
  • Yao, Xin

Abstract

Air pollution is one of the most predominant challenges in China. In order to ensure the smog governance projects could be promoted smoothly and the public shoulder the environmental responsibilities consciously, it is necessary for the policymakers to take public attitude into consideration, and understand the public willingness to pay (WTP) for smog mitigation. This paper adopts a CV method framework to assess the value of WTP and analyze the determinants. Given the consideration of the possible presence of the selectivity bias caused by protest responses, the bivariate sample selection model is constructed for estimation. Results show that up to 14% of respondents hold the protest responses, and neglecting the selection bias caused by protest responses would lead to downward biased estimates. The mean value of WTP for the smog mitigation is 1590.36 RMB per year, accounting for about 1% of annual income. Moreover, the NIMBY (not in my backyard) attitude among public is found to be significantly correlated with their WTP, and the other determinants such as household annual income, energy expenditure and economic loss caused by smog could also substantially affect the value of WTP. We further recommend grading governance and policy transparency to address the smog crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Sun, Chuanwang & Yuan, Xiang & Yao, Xin, 2016. "Social acceptance towards the air pollution in China: Evidence from public's willingness to pay for smog mitigation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 313-324.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:92:y:2016:i:c:p:313-324
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2016.02.025
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421516300659
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2016.02.025?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Trudy Ann Cameron, 1991. "Interval Estimates of Non-Market Resource Values from Referendum Contingent Valuation Surveys," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 67(4), pages 413-421.
    2. Sun, Chuanwang & Zhu, Xiting, 2014. "Evaluating the public perceptions of nuclear power in China: Evidence from a contingent valuation survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 397-405.
    3. Siqi Zheng & Jing Cao & Matthew Kahn & Cong Sun, 2014. "Real Estate Valuation and Cross-Boundary Air Pollution Externalities: Evidence from Chinese Cities," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 398-414, April.
    4. Zhang, Yue-Jun & Da, Ya-Bin, 2015. "The decomposition of energy-related carbon emission and its decoupling with economic growth in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1255-1266.
    5. Chien, Yu-Lan & Huang, Cliff J. & Shaw, Daigee, 2005. "A general model of starting point bias in double-bounded dichotomous contingent valuation surveys," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 362-377, September.
    6. Elisabetta Strazzera & Riccardo Scarpa & Pinuccia Calia & Guy Garrod & Kenneth Willis, 2003. "Modelling zero values and protest responses in contingent valuation surveys," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(2), pages 133-138.
    7. Halstead, John M. & Luloff, A.E. & Stevens, Thomas H., 1992. "Protest Bidders In Contingent Valuation," Northeastern Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 21(2), pages 1-10, October.
    8. Dominika Dziegielewska & Robert Mendelsohn, 2007. "Does “No” mean “No”? A protest methodology," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 38(1), pages 71-87, September.
    9. Wei, Yi-Ming & Liu, Lan-Cui & Fan, Ying & Wu, Gang, 2007. "The impact of lifestyle on energy use and CO2 emission: An empirical analysis of China's residents," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 247-257, January.
    10. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    11. Yue-Jun Zhang & Zhao Liu & Huan Zhang & Tai-De Tan, 2014. "The impact of economic growth, industrial structure and urbanization on carbon emission intensity in China," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 73(2), pages 579-595, September.
    12. Lo, Alex Y. & Jim, C.Y., 2015. "Protest response and willingness to pay for culturally significant urban trees: Implications for Contingent Valuation Method," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 58-66.
    13. Garcia, Serge & Harou, Patrice & Montagné, Claire & Stenger, Anne, 2009. "Models for sample selection bias in contingent valuation: Application to forest biodiversity," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1-2), pages 59-78, January.
    14. Shono, Aiko & Kondo, Masahide & Ohmae, Hiroshi & Okubo, Ichiro, 2014. "Willingness to pay for public health services in rural Central Java, Indonesia: Methodological considerations when using the contingent valuation method," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 31-40.
    15. Fanbin Kong & Kai Xiong & Ning Zhang, 2014. "Determinants of Farmers’ Willingness to Pay and Its Level for Ecological Compensation of Poyang Lake Wetland, China: A Household-Level Survey," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(10), pages 1-15, September.
    16. Francis Vella, 1998. "Estimating Models with Sample Selection Bias: A Survey," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 33(1), pages 127-169.
    17. Jorgensen, Bradley S. & Syme, Geoffrey J., 2000. "Protest responses and willingness to pay: attitude toward paying for stormwater pollution abatement," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 251-265, May.
    18. Adaman, Fikret & KaralI, Nihan & Kumbaroglu, Gürkan & Or, Ilhan & Özkaynak, Begüm & Zenginobuz, Ünal, 2011. "What determines urban households' willingness to pay for CO2 emission reductions in Turkey: A contingent valuation survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 689-698, February.
    19. Werner, Megan, 1999. "Allowing for Zeros in Dichotomous-Choice Contingent-Valuation Models," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 17(4), pages 479-486, October.
    20. Oh, Hyungna & Hong, Jong Ho, 2012. "Citizens’ trust in government and their willingness-to-pay," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(3), pages 345-347.
    21. James Hammitt & Ying Zhou, 2006. "The Economic Value of Air-Pollution-Related Health Risks in China: A Contingent Valuation Study," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 33(3), pages 399-423, March.
    22. Chuanwang Sun & Nan Lyu & Xiaoling Ouyang, 2014. "Chinese Public Willingness to Pay to Avoid Having Nuclear Power Plants in the Neighborhood," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(10), pages 1-27, October.
    23. Dale Whittington, 2002. "Improving the Performance of Contingent Valuation Studies in Developing Countries," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 22(1), pages 323-367, June.
    24. Patrick Puhani, 2000. "The Heckman Correction for Sample Selection and Its Critique," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(1), pages 53-68, February.
    25. Sun, Chuanwang & Ouyang, Xiaoling, 2016. "Price and expenditure elasticities of residential energy demand during urbanization: An empirical analysis based on the household-level survey data in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 56-63.
    26. Timothy Haab, 1999. "Nonparticipation or Misspecification? The Impacts of Nonparticipation on Dichotomous Choice Contingent Valuation," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 14(4), pages 443-461, December.
    27. Cam Donaldson & Andrew Jones & Tracy Mapp & Jan Abel Olson, 1998. "Limited dependent variables in willingness to pay studies: applications in health care," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(5), pages 667-677.
    28. Cooper Joseph C., 1993. "Optimal Bid Selection for Dichotomous Choice Contingent Valuation Surveys," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 25-40, January.
    29. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    30. Du, Gang & Lin, Wei & Sun, Chuanwang & Zhang, Dingzhong, 2015. "Residential electricity consumption after the reform of tiered pricing for household electricity in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 276-283.
    31. Lan-Cui Liu & Gang Wu & Yue-Jun Zhang, 2015. "Investigating the residential energy consumption behaviors in Beijing: a survey study," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 75(1), pages 243-263, January.
    32. Lim, Kyoung-Min & Lim, Seul-Ye & Yoo, Seung-Hoon, 2014. "Estimating the economic value of residential electricity use in the Republic of Korea using contingent valuation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 601-606.
    33. Abdullah, Sabah & Jeanty, P. Wilner, 2011. "Willingness to pay for renewable energy: Evidence from a contingent valuation survey in Kenya," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 2974-2983, August.
    34. Guo, Xiurui & Liu, Haifeng & Mao, Xianqiang & Jin, Jianjun & Chen, Dongsheng & Cheng, Shuiyuan, 2014. "Willingness to pay for renewable electricity: A contingent valuation study in Beijing, China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 340-347.
    35. Whitehead, John C. & Groothuis, Peter A. & Blomquist, Glenn C., 1993. "Testing for non-response and sample selection bias in contingent valuation : Analysis of a combination phone/mail survey," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 215-220.
    36. Kraeusel, Jonas & Möst, Dominik, 2012. "Carbon Capture and Storage on its way to large-scale deployment: Social acceptance and willingness to pay in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 642-651.
    37. Begona Alvarez-Farizo, 1999. "Estimating the Benefits of Agri-environmental Policy: Econometric Issues in Open-ended Contingent Valuation Studies," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(1), pages 23-43.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Elisabetta Strazzera & Margarita Genius & Riccardo Scarpa & George Hutchinson, 2003. "The Effect of Protest Votes on the Estimates of WTP for Use Values of Recreational Sites," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 25(4), pages 461-476, August.
    2. Ouyang, Xiaoling & Zhuang, Wuxu & Sun, Chuanwang, 2019. "Haze, health, and income: An integrated model for willingness to pay for haze mitigation in Shanghai, China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    3. Richard T. Carson, 2011. "Contingent Valuation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2489.
    4. Lin, Boqiang & Tan, Ruipeng, 2017. "Estimation of the environmental values of electric vehicles in Chinese cities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 221-229.
    5. Mark Pennington & Manuel Gomes & Cam Donaldson, 2017. "Handling Protest Responses in Contingent Valuation Surveys," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 37(6), pages 623-634, August.
    6. Madureira, Lívia & Nunes, Luis C. & Borges, José G. & Falcão, André O., 2011. "Assessing forest management strategies using a contingent valuation approach and advanced visualisation techniques: A Portuguese case study," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 399-414.
    7. Tan, Ruipeng & Lin, Boqiang, 2019. "Public perception of new energy vehicles: Evidence from willingness to pay for new energy bus fares in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 347-354.
    8. Maria Ana Odejar & Kostas Mavromaras & Mandy Ryan, 2004. "Messy Data Modelling in Health Care Contingent Valuation Studies," Econometric Society 2004 North American Summer Meetings 406, Econometric Society.
    9. Elisabetta Strazzera & Margarita Genius, 2004. "The Copula Approach to Sample Selection Modelling: An Application to the Recreational Value of Forests," Working Papers 2004.73, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    10. Chandra Kiran B. Krishnamurthy & Bengt Kriström, 2016. "Determinants of the Price-Premium for Green Energy: Evidence from an OECD Cross-Section," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 64(2), pages 173-204, June.
    11. Osiolo, Helen Hoka, 2017. "Willingness to pay for improved energy: Evidence from Kenya," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 104-112.
    12. Robert J. Johnston & Kevin J. Boyle & Wiktor (Vic) Adamowicz & Jeff Bennett & Roy Brouwer & Trudy Ann Cameron & W. Michael Hanemann & Nick Hanley & Mandy Ryan & Riccardo Scarpa & Roger Tourangeau & Ch, 2017. "Contemporary Guidance for Stated Preference Studies," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(2), pages 319-405.
    13. Brouwer, Roy & Martín-Ortega, Julia, 2012. "Modeling self-censoring of polluter pays protest votes in stated preference research to support resource damage estimations in environmental liability," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 151-166.
    14. Chuanwang Sun & Nan Lyu & Xiaoling Ouyang, 2014. "Chinese Public Willingness to Pay to Avoid Having Nuclear Power Plants in the Neighborhood," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(10), pages 1-27, October.
    15. Cho, Seong-Hoon & Yen, Steven T. & Bowker, James Michael & Newman, David H., 2008. "Modeling Willingness to Pay for Land Conservation Easements: Treatment of Zero and Protest Bids and Application and Policy Implications," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 40(1), pages 1-19, April.
    16. Fan, Jing-Li & Zhang, Yue-Jun & Wang, Bing, 2017. "The impact of urbanization on residential energy consumption in China: An aggregated and disaggregated analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 220-233.
    17. Collins, Alan R. & Rosenberger, Randall S., 2007. "Protest Adjustments in the Valuation of Watershed Restoration Using Payment Card Data," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 36(2), pages 1-15, October.
    18. MEZGEBO, Alem & GETA, Endrias & ZELEKE, Fresenbet, 2016. "Urban Freshwater Users Willingness To Pay For Upland Degraded Watershed Management: The Case Of Dechatu In Dire Dawa Administration, Ethiopia," Review of Agricultural and Applied Economics (RAAE), Faculty of Economics and Management, Slovak Agricultural University in Nitra, vol. 19(1), pages 1-8, March.
    19. Oerlemans, Leon A.G. & Chan, Kai-Ying & Volschenk, Jako, 2016. "Willingness to pay for green electricity: A review of the contingent valuation literature and its sources of error," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 875-885.
    20. Margarita Genius & Elisabetta Strazzera, 2008. "Applying the copula approach to sample selection modelling," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(11), pages 1443-1455.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:92:y:2016:i:c:p:313-324. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.