On consumers' attitudes and willingness to pay for improved drinking water quality and infrastructure

Abstract

This paper examines the determinants of consumers' willingness to pay for improvement programs for three drinking water issues: water quality, pinhole leaks in home plumbing infrastructure, and aging public infrastructure. The research is based on a mail survey of consumers in Northern Virginia and the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D. C. The analysis focuses on the relationship between information, risk perceptions, and willingness to pay. An alternative specific conditional logit model is used to model consumers' willingness to pay for improvements. Results indicate that the willingness to pay for any of the programs is negatively affected by the cost of the proposed improvement. Consumers' risk perceptions, the external information provided in the survey, and whether they read the annual report from their water utility affect consumers' willingness to pay for improvement programs.