67 / 2016-04-28 20:19:18

Are You Willing to Pay for Clean Air?

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With frequent haze occurring in megacities of China, the public desire for clean air attracts our attention. Detailed investigations were performed successively in Jinan, capital of Shandong province, by using a contingent valuation method (CVM) with open-ended scenarios in 2006 and 2016.
The questionnaire contained questions on participants’socio-economic status and subjective consciousness. The results of statistical models showed that the level of education, income and medical cost for the treatment of respiratory diseases are closely related to the willing-to-pay( WTP) levels.
By analyzing 1319 valid questionnaires, the average of WTP for air quality improvement (AQI) was 100 Chinese Yuan (CNY) per year per person in 2006. The amount of WTP for AQI was calculated to be 101 CNY per year per person based on a similar field survey form 1059 valid questionnaires in 2016. Adjusted for inflation by consumer price index, it was found that the average WTP in 2016 dropped by 27% compared to that in 2006. The possible explanation was that the public lacked of confidence of the AQI programs, and thus the percentage of negative WTP increased. In addition, 1096 valid questionnaires were eatimated the WTP for hypothetical clean air (HCA) instead of AQI, and the value rose up to 153 CNY per year per person in 2016.
Considering the potential differences between the two surveys, both AQI and HCA questions were included into the third version of questionnaire, and the estimated mean WTP for HCA and AQI was 74 CNY and 38 CNY per month per person, respectively. The discrepancy indicated that the respondents were more willing to pay if the clean ambient air could be turned into a private good.
Furthermore, the mean WTP per month per person was higher than the mean WTP per year per person, and even higher than the monthly expenditure for water and electriciy, which indicates that the mean WTP per month per person reflects the true valuation for clean air by the public. However, the value of WTP in Jinan was relatively low compared to that in other cities.
According to data from the Sixth National Population Census, the permanent resident population in Jinan proper is 3.83 million. The total amount of WTP for AQI is 12*38*3.83 million CNY per year. The city government plans to invest nearly 10 billion CNY for air pollution treatment in the 2016-2020 period, which meets the expectations of the public but is still far from enough. It is emphasized that successful air quality improvement relies not only on governmental programs, but also on public awareness and active participation.