Using discrete choice experiments to value preferences for air quality improvement: the case of curbing haze in urban China

Tang, Chengxiang and Zhang, Yucheng (2015) Using discrete choice experiments to value preferences for air quality improvement: the case of curbing haze in urban China. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 59 (8), 1473-1494. (doi:10.1080/09640568.2015.1079518).

Record type: Article

Abstract

China's top legislature amended a law that “sets environmental protection as the country's basic policy”, which planned to force regulators to make improvements in air quality. Limited studies have attempted to estimate separate values for attributes of air quality improvements from the perspective of how residents value the reduction of haze and health benefits. We apply a discrete choice experiment to estimate the economic benefits involved in these changes. The analysis demonstrates that residents from urban areas are positively willing to pay for air quality improvement. We further employ a mixed logit model and a latent class model to investigate potential heterogeneity in preferences. The preference heterogeneity is significantly related to individuals' exposure to health risks relating to air quality, which is represented by whether the residence location of the respondent is covered by haze/smog on the interview day.

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