What are Households Willing to Pay for Better Tap Water Quality?

Olivier Beaumais (1) , Anne Briand (1) , Katrin Millock (2, 3) , Céline Nauges (4, 5)

1 CARE - Centre d'Analyse et de Recherche en Économie
2 CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne
3 PSE - Paris School of Economics
4 LERNA - Economie des Ressources Naturelles
5 UQ [All campuses : Brisbane, Dutton Park Gatton, Herston, St Lucia and other locations] - The University of Queensland

We estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for better quality of tap water on a unique cross-section sample from 10 OECD countries. On the pooled sample, households are willing to pay 7.5% of the median annual water bill to improve the tap water quality. The highest relative WTP for better tap water quality was found in the countries with the highest percentage of respondents being unsatisfied with tap water quality because of health concerns. The expected WTP increased with income, education, environmental concern, and health and taste concerns with the tap water.

Mots clés: contingent valuation; household data; interval model; water quality; willingness to pay

Domaines: Economies et finances

Olivier Beaumais, Anne Briand, Katrin Millock, Céline Nauges. What are Households Willing to Pay for Better Tap Water Quality?: A Cross-Country Valuation Study. 2014. ⟨halshs-00972347⟩