Narrow Results

Increasing levels of waste from electrical and electronic devices (e-waste) not only harms human health and the environment but also hampers the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In response to such threats, emphasis should be placed on improving waste collection rate, which requires a great deal of resident participation. This research adopts a choice experiment analysis regarding the residents’ preferences toward some proposed e-waste recycling services in Vietnam. Using a sample of 531 respondents, the empirical analysis derived from multinomial logit (MNL) models and random parameter logit (RPL) models yields estimates of the residents’ willingness to pay for the two modes of e-waste collection and three levels of environmental benefit. The findings pinpoint that residents have preferences for the door-to-door pick-up and the higher percentage of waste reduction and material conservation. Of socio-demographic variables, only age and location are significant factors in the choice of e-waste recycling scenarios in the extended RPL model. Estimations of marginal willingness to pay for future recycling options show that on average residents are willing to pay the additional fees that are equal to 2.620% and 0.173% on top of the new product value per purchase in return for convenience of pick-up collection services and an improved percentage of waste avoided as well as materials recovered, respectively. The findings showing the residents’ demand for future e-waste recycling scheme provide crucial information for both government and stakeholders in strategizing implementable and acceptable e-waste recycling policies, thereby progressively achieving the SDGs.

In order to control air pollution in Beijing, China has introduced a number of policy measures. However, the policy costs have never been well evaluated from the perspective of the residents. We conducted a survey of 633 Beijing residents with a choice experimental setting, and evaluate the current air pollution control policies. The main findings include: (1) Restriction of private vehicle driving does increase utility of residents; (2) Replacing coal-dominated heating system with natural gas has a better effect on air pollution control than replacement with electricity; (3) Beijing residents demand more radical policies to control air pollution and, according to our estimation, are willing to pay 5.1% of their income for more such policy measures; (4) The capital city function of Beijing yields many economic and political advantages for the residents, and the economic benefit is equal to 8.3% of their income.

A better understanding of how society anticipates and adapts to future changes is critical to inform impact assessment and to develop timely and well-targeted policies to support adaptation. However, the forward-looking adaptation process remains poorly understood. In this paper we introduce choice experiment as a useful approach to investigate how households prefer to adapt livelihoods ex ante to the economic impact of climate and policy changes. This allows us to frame adaptation decisions within the random utility theory and explicitly quantify the likelihoods of particular adaptation choices given varied attributes of contextual changes and households. We collected data from 162 rural households in three Chinese mountain villages. Overall, households chose primarily to increase efforts in agriculture activities or stick to current livelihood portfolios. The results of a Mixed Logit model indicated that households’ choice of agriculture was certain while their adoption of non-agriculture livelihoods to safeguard the households from future changes. Moreover, several possibilities were evaluated for policy interventions to build adaptive capacity of households and facilitate adaptation. Such measures could, for instance, focus on supporting agricultural inputs, providing access to credit as well as practical skills training.

Smallholder farmers in Africa rely heavily on rainfed agriculture. Those who have access to irrigation often receive it at no charge, but quantity, frequency and reliability may be limited without adequate revenue for maintenance and operation. Moreover, the absence of fees means that there are no pricing signals to encourage conservation of this scarce resource. In a situation where farmers do not pay for irrigation water use, this study investigates demand-side issues by eliciting farmers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for access to irrigation water. This study employs choice experiment (CE) and contingent valuation methods (CVMs) to value access to irrigation water, taking Ethiopia as a case in point. Unlike previous studies, this study covers current users and non-users of irrigation water using the same baseline (status quo) conditions — no irrigation — and compares the preferences of these two groups. The four attributes identified in the CE are number of crop seasons, frequency of watering in a season, crop type, and payment level. Results show that marginal WTP was Birr 17.7 (US$ 0.98), 261.8 (US$ 14.54) and 87.6 (US$ 4.87) for number of crop seasons, watering frequency in a season and crop type, respectively. Our estimates of farmers’ WTP for operation and maintenance of irrigation schemes per hectare of irrigated land range from Birr 738 (US$ 41.00) (from the CE) to Birr 784 (US$ 43.56) (from the CVM). We also find that, compared to current users, non-users were willing to pay more in general, as well as for the number of crop seasons specifically.

In this paper, we assess the environmental benefits derived from a wetland restoration plan. We assume that some of these benefits are “familiar” and thus fully perceived by the population; whereas those with more complex origins are “unfamiliar” and thus poorly perceived and valued. Well perceived benefits can often be assessed from carefully constructed conventional economic approaches based on preferences. However, the biases of these approaches become too significant for poorly perceived benefits which require alternative valuation methods. The “adapted” Habitat Evaluation Procedure (HEPa) “benefit” seeks to value environmental benefits through a non-monetary metric, the habitat unit. It evaluates marginal environmental changes using ecological indicators instead of preferences. Our aim is to test the possibility of combining a conventional monetary valuation method (choice experiment) with a non-monetary alternative valuation method (HEPa) to see whether such a combination could improve the assessment of benefits stemming from positive impacts of environmental policies. By so doing, we seek to contribute to a better integration of ecosystem services into the processes of planning, management, and decision-making regarding natural areas.

The Korean government has planned to expand the organic waste-to-energy (OWtE) facilities in order to mitigate greenhouse gases emissions. One response to this concern is to measure the external benefits of increasing OWtE plants. To this end, this study attempts to apply a choice experiment (CE) to three attributes or types of benefits such as the improvement of energy security, extension of landfill life expectancy, and job creation. A survey of 1,000 households was undertaken in whole country. The trade-offs between price and the three attributes for selecting a preferred alternative are considered in the CE survey and a marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) estimate for each attribute is derived. A nested logit (NL) model is employed in this study, rather than a multi-nomial logit (MNL) model since two specification tests indicate that the NL model outperforms the MNL model. The estimation results for the NL model show that the MWTPs for a 1% increase in energy security, the doubling of landfill life expectancy, and a 1 person increase in job creation as a result of expanding OWtE facilities are estimated to be KRW 237 (USD 0.2), 148 (0.13), 15 (0.01) per household per year, respectively. The findings can provide policy-makers with useful information for evaluating and planning OWtE policies and projects.