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The Price of Purity: Willingness to Pay for Air and Water Purification Technologies in Rajasthan, India

Author

Listed:
  • Alexandra K. Shannon

    (Johns Hopkins University)

  • Faraz Usmani

    (Duke University)

  • Subhrendu K. Pattanayak

    (Duke University
    Duke University
    Duke University)

  • Marc Jeuland

    (Duke University
    Duke University
    National University of Singapore
    RWI-Leibniz Institute, for Economic Research)

Abstract

Diarrheal illnesses and acute respiratory infections are among the top causes for premature death and disability across the developing world, and adoption of various technologies for avoiding these illnesses remains extremely low. We exploit data from a unique contingent valuation experiment to consider whether households in rural Rajasthan are unwilling to make investments in “domain-specific” environmental health technologies when faced with health risks in multiple domains. Results indicate that demand for water-related risk reductions is higher on average than demand for air-related risk reduction. In addition, households’ private health benefits from mitigating diarrheal (respiratory) disease risks are higher (no different) when community-level air pollution risks, rather than community-level water pollution risks, have previously been mitigated. This asymmetric response cannot fully be explained by survey order effects or embedding, but rather suggests that that the broader health environment and the salience of particular risks may be important in households’ decision to adopt environmental health technologies.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandra K. Shannon & Faraz Usmani & Subhrendu K. Pattanayak & Marc Jeuland, 2019. "The Price of Purity: Willingness to Pay for Air and Water Purification Technologies in Rajasthan, India," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(4), pages 1073-1100, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:73:y:2019:i:4:d:10.1007_s10640-018-0290-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s10640-018-0290-4
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Household air pollution; Diarrheal diseases; Technology adoption; Contingent valuation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

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