Valuing water quality improvements in the United States using meta-analysis: Is the glass half-full or half-empty for national policy analysis?

Houtven, George Van; Powers, John R.; Pattanayak, Subhrendu K.

doi:10.1016/j.reseneeco.2007.01.002

Cited by 167 publications

(110 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…9 In addition, to account for the panel structure of the data (i.e., multiple WTP estimates from individual studies), the standard errors are clustered by "study" using a Huber-White method. These are well-established methods for meta-regression analyses of WTP data (Nelson and Kennedy, 2009;Van Houtven et al, 2007). Table 4 reports results for the full sample (N = 171) and for six different model specifications.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What are Households Willing to Pay for Improved Water Access? Results from a Meta-Analysis

Houtven

Pattanayak

Usmani

et al. 2017

Ecological Economics

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Although several factors contribute to low rates of access to improved water and sanitation in the developing world, it is especially important to understand and measure household demand for these services. One valuable source of information regarding demand is the growing empirical literature that has applied stated preference methods to estimate households' willingness to pay (WTP). Because it is difficult to generalize and support planning based on this scattered literature, we conduct a meta-analysis to take stock of the worldwide sample of household WTP for improved drinking water services. Using 171 WTP estimates drawn from sixty studies, we first describe this sample and then examine the potential factors that explain variation in WTP estimates. Our results suggest that households are willing to pay between approximately $3 and $30 per month for improvements in water access. Specifically, in line with economic theory and intuition, WTP is sensitive to scope (the size of the change in drinking water services), as well as household income, and stated-preference elicitation method. We demonstrate how our results can be used to predict household-level WTP for selected improvements in drinking water access in regions with low coverage, and find that private benefits exceed the cost of provision.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What are Households Willing to Pay for Improved Water Access? Results from a Meta-Analysis

Houtven

Pattanayak

Usmani

et al. 2017

Ecological Economics

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“…1326-1338), the relationship between changes in CWQI and changes in WTP-used here as an indicator of economic costs and/or benefits-is developed from the full linear meta-regression transfer function from [7], using a piecewise linear function. We use state-level data from the [50] on persons per household to convert WTP per household to WTP per person to develop a national WTP across scenarios and eras.…”

Section: Valuation Of Water Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A variety of studies have examined the impact of water quality on activities such as river and lake visits, boating, and swimming and fishing in a number of geographic contexts. The authors of [7] provide an example of this by translating biophysical modeling estimates of water quality into human preferences and find households in Virginia are willing to pay $184 million per year (in 2010 dollars) to improve water quality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate Change Impacts on US Water Quality Using Two Models: HAWQS and US Basins

Fant¹,

Srinivasan

Boehlert

et al. 2017

Water

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Climate change and freshwater quality are well-linked. Changes in climate result in changes in streamflow and rising water temperatures, which impact biochemical reaction rates and increase stratification in lakes and reservoirs. Using two water quality modeling systems (the Hydrologic and Water Quality System; HAWQS and US Basins), five climate models, and two greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation policies, we assess future water quality in the continental U.S. to 2100 considering four water quality parameters: water temperature, dissolved oxygen, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus. Once these parameters are aggregated into a water quality index, we find that, while the water quality models differ under the baseline, there is more agreement between future projections. In addition, we find that the difference in national-scale economic benefits across climate models is generally larger than the difference between the two water quality models. Both water quality models find that water quality will more likely worsen in the East than in the West. Under the business-as-usual emissions scenario, we find that climate change is likely to cause economic impacts ranging from 1.2 to 2.3 (2005 billion USD/year) in 2050 and 2.7 to 4.8 in 2090 across all climate and water quality models.

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“…[8] Another line of work has estimated the value of surface water quality in rivers and streams [e.g., Carson and Mitchell, 1993;Van Houtven et al, 2007;Johnston et al, 2005;Whitehead, 2006] yet only a little of that research has been in urban or urbanizing areas [Bateman et al, 2006]. Some research has studied the values people place on dimensions of environmental quality in freshwater systems that are more complex than pollution levels [Loomis et al, 2000;Wilson and Carpenter, 1999].…”

Section: Related Economic Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, a new generation of decentralized stormwater solutions can produce important ancillary environmental benefits. Previous research has estimated values for surface water quality [Carson and Mitchell, 1993;Van Houtven et al, 2007;Johnston et al, 2005] and for flood reduction from stormwater management [Bin and Polasky, 2004;Zhai et al, 2006Zhai et al, , 2007, but no estimates exist for the values of some of the other environmental benefits of alternative approaches to stormwater control. This paper fills that gap by using a choice experiment survey of households in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, to estimate the values of multiple attributes of stormwater management outcomes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Valuing preferences over stormwater management outcomes including improved hydrologic function

Cadavid

Ando

2013

Water Resources Research

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[1] Stormwater runoff causes environmental problems such as flooding, soil erosion, and water pollution. Conventional stormwater management has focused primarily on flood reduction, while a new generation of decentralized stormwater solutions yields ancillary benefits such as healthier aquatic habitat, improved surface water quality, and increased water table recharge. Previous research has estimated values for flood reduction from stormwater management, but no estimates exist for the willingness to pay (WTP) for some of the other environmental benefits of alternative approaches to stormwater control. This paper uses a choice experiment survey of households in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, to estimate the values of several attributes of stormwater management outcomes. We analyzed data from 131 surveyed households in randomly selected neighborhoods. We find that people value reduced basement flooding more than reductions in yard or street flooding, but WTP for basement flood reduction in the area only exists if individuals are currently experiencing significant flooding themselves. Citizens value both improved water quality and improved hydrologic function and aquatic habitat from runoff reduction. Thus, widespread investment in low impact development stormwater solutions could have very large total benefits, and stormwater managers should be wary of policies and infrastructure plans that reduce flooding at the expense of water quality and aquatic habitat.

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Valuing water quality improvements in the United States using meta-analysis: Is the glass half-full or half-empty for national policy analysis?

Cited by 167 publications

References 33 publications

What are Households Willing to Pay for Improved Water Access? Results from a Meta-Analysis

What are Households Willing to Pay for Improved Water Access? Results from a Meta-Analysis

Climate Change Impacts on US Water Quality Using Two Models: HAWQS and US Basins

Valuing preferences over stormwater management outcomes including improved hydrologic function

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