Demand for environmental quality: averting behaviors impacts and valuation in Southern Ghana

Abstract

Using a cluster randomized evaluation in Southern Ghana, this paper estimates the impacts of water quality testing and information on averting behaviors, demand and expenditures on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Households are randomly assigned into either child treatment or adult treatment or comparison group. The study also elicits households' valuation of water quality testing and information using a stated preference approach. The study finds that averting behaviors and expenses on WASH increased more in the treatment households than the comparison households. The results also show that the experiment does not lead to demand for WASH information and infrastructure, except for water treatment in the adult treatment group. Contingent valuation estimates of households' willingness to pay (WTP) for water quality testing and information are lower than the cost, and are consistent with previous studies which show low valuation of water quality technology in Ghana. The WTP in the treatment groups are lower than the comparison group. The study also finds differential impacts on some of the outcome measures based on the random assignment into the treatment groups. The results have research and policy implications on the demand for preventive health goods and environmental quality in developing countries.

Intra‐household health effects of irrigation in Southern Ghana*

“…The trade-off between improved water sources and water purification could plausibly explain the rationale of households choosing safer sources and therefore being unable to undertake costly purification methods. These results have been documented from water quality information dissemination randomized evaluations in developing countries (Hamoudi et al, 2012;Okyere et al, 2017;Okyere, 2018Okyere, , 2021. The less ownership of bednets is inconsistent with Ijumba & Lindsay (2001) and could be driving the positive effects of irrigation on malaria prevalence (Pan & Singhal, 2019).…”

“…Households in the study sites rely on multiple water sources such as piped water, boreholes, protected wells, rainwater, sachet water, among others. For piped and sachet water, households have to pay money/cash to access these water sources, while other sources such as rivers/streams and rainwater are collected for free by the households (see also Okyere, 2021). Relative to non-irrigated-agriculture households, irrigated-agriculture households have more assets and income, high environmental quality, high health expenditure, high educational status, lower age, more access to infrastructure and institutional support, no difference in access to internet and tarred roads, and less water purification and ownership of bednets.…”