Browsing by Subject "Willingness to pay"
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Item Open Access Benefits of improved cookstoves: Evidence from MTF surveys in Nepal(2021-05-01) Jin, ZhumaClean cooking energy has become the focus of many governments, researchers, and nonprofits, especially in low-income developing countries. However, 43% of the global population, approximately three billion people are still relying on traditional unclean biomass energy for their daily household cooking, and many of them are in developing countries.Item Open Access Cooking Fuel “Stacking” Implications for Willingness to Switch to Clean Fuels in Peri-urban Kathmandu Valley, Nepal(2020) Rogers, BridgetCooking fuel “stacking,” or the use of multiple types of fuels, can be problematic in interventions when households are using both clean and dirty fuels at the same time. Dirty fuels such as firewood contribute to indoor air pollution, cause detrimental health effects, and are inefficient forms of energy. In this study, cooking fuel preference data was collected from 360 households in peripheral-urban Kathmandu, Nepal during August 2019. Respondents provided fuel information and gave economic preferences for a contingent valuation experiment on their reported primary fuel type. We explored two aims through multiple regression analyses: the relationship between fuel stacking behavior and willingness to pay (WTP), and the household characteristics associated with fuel stacking behavior. The analyses showed that stacking does not affect WTP, and household expenses are a significant factor associated with WTP only among households using LPG as their primary fuel. The secondary aim found that the main household characteristics associated with fuel stacking are household size, firewood gathering behavior, and if the household was affected by the 2015 LPG blockade. The relationships of these characteristics are complex and depend on whether the household is using more LPG or more firewood when stacking. More research is needed to better understand fuel stacking, and why most people in peri-urban Kathmandu prefer LPG as their primary fuel.
Item Open Access Duke Carbon Offsets Initiative: Energy Efficiency Carbon Offsets(2013-04-26) Chauhan, Sugandha; Lu, Aaron; Chen, YunzhongDuke University aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2024 by a combination of efforts to reduce on campus energy consumption and off campus carbon offset generation. One of the offset options that DCOI is evaluating is energy efficiency retrofits in residential buildings leading to indirect emission reductions. The problem we have attempted to address in our project is how Duke University can identify potential carbon offset opportunities in terms of improving energy efficiency in homes and businesses and how these offsets can be verified and quantified. In order to determine the potential savings in energy consumption, we evaluated energy data from a similar energy retrofit project conducted by the City of Durham. The pre and post retrofit energy consumption data from these houses was analyzed to determine the energy savings, the resultant carbon emissions reduction and the carbon price. The second step of the project involved studying energy efficiency retrofit projects that have been undertaken in other regions at various levels and sizes. The last question that this project aimed to answer was regarding the suitability of various financing mechanisms for the retrofitting project. In order to address this question a demand assessment survey was designed to determine the willingness of Duke employees to participate in such a program and pay for the retrofits. The results of our analysis showed that average electricity savings of 113.13 KWh per month can be generated through retrofits including air and duct sealing and insulation enhancement. The average cost of retrofit was determined to be $1/sq feet of heated area. Using this investment cost and annual savings, the carbon price was determined to be 133.37 $/metric ton of CO2 equivalent reduction. Sensitivity analysis conducted for this carbon price showed that the factors that had the largest impact on carbon price are the initial investment and annual energy savings. The final set of recommendations provided to DCOI are based upon the results obtained from the City of Durham data analysis and the comparative programs and carbon price study along with the essential project requirements for meeting the Verified Carbon Standard carbon offset program criteria.Item Open Access Location Choice and the Value of Spatially Delineated Amenities(2008-04-25) Bishop, Kelly CatherineIn the first chapter of this dissertation, I outline a hedonic equilibrium model that explicitly controls for moving costs and forward-looking behavior. Hedonic equilibrium models allow researchers to recover willingness to pay for spatially delineated amenities by using the notion that individuals "vote with their feet." However, the hedonic literature and, more recently, the estimable Tiebout sorting model literature, has largely ignored both the costs associated with migration (financial and psychological), as well as the forward-looking behavior that individuals exercise in making location decisions. Each of these omissions could lead to biased estimates of willingness to pay. Building upon dynamic migration models from the labor literature, I estimate a fully dynamic model of individual migration at the national level. By employing a two-step estimation routine, I avoid the computational burden associated with the full recursive solution and can then include a richly-specified, realistic state space. With this model, I am able to perform non-market valuation exercises and learn about the spatial determinants of labor market outcomes in a dynamic setting. Including dynamics has a significant positive impact on the estimates of willingness to pay for air quality. In addition, I find that location-specific amenity values can explain important trends in observed migration patterns in the United States.
The second chapter of this dissertation describes a model which estimates willingness to pay for air quality using property value hedonics techniques. Since Rosen's seminal 1974 paper, property value hedonics has become commonplace in the non-market valuation of environmental amenities, despite a number of well-known methodological problems. In particular, recovery of the marginal willingness to pay function suffers from important endogeneity biases that are difficult to correct with instrumental variables procedures [Epple (1987)]. Bajari and Benkard (2005) propose a "preference inversion" procedure for recovering heterogeneous measures of marginal willingness to pay that avoids these problems. However, using cross-sectional data, their approach imposes unrealistic constraints on the elasticity of marginal willingness to pay. Following Bajari and Benkard's suggestion, I show how data describing repeat purchase decisions by individual home buyers can be used to relax these constraints. Using data on ozone pollution in the Bay Area of California, I find that endogeneity bias and flexibility in the shape of the marginal willingness to pay function are both important.
Finally, in the third chapter of this dissertation, I combine the insights of the Bajari-Benkard inversion approach employed in second chapter with more standard estimation techniques (i.e., Rosen (1974)) to arrive at a new hedonic methodology that allows for flexible and heterogeneous preferences while avoiding the endogeneity problems that plague the traditional Rosen two-stage model. Implementing this estimator using the Bay Area ozone data, I again find evidence of considerable heterogeneity and of endogeneity bias. In particular, I find that a one unit deterioration in air quality (measured in days in which ozone levels exceed the state standards) raises marginal willingness to pay by $145.18 per year. The canonical two-stage Rosen model finds, counter-intuitively, that this same change would reduce marginal willingness to pay by $94.24.
Item Open Access Optimizing Rainwater Harvesting Installation in Kashongi, Uganda(2011-04-19) Wong, JasonCommunity-based water supply systems like Institutional Rainwater Harvesting (IRWH) are promising solutions to water supply in rural areas like Uganda. However, IRWH tank systems have been unsustainable in the long-term due to collective action failure, causing agencies to switch to less cost-effective systems. Current literature shows that local institutions are significant predictors of success in managing community-based resources, but little research has been done in the area of rural potable water supply. This study uses empirical research to investigate IRWH system sustainability, and its association with local institutions. Focus groups, interviews and surveys were used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data in Kashongi sub-county, Uganda. The results show that villages in Kashongi sub-county have the potential to be self-reliant in sustaining their IRWH tank system. Institutions are associated with tank sustainability through two ways: financial sustainability and tank functionality. Least-squares regressions identified several key predictors of both financial sustainability and tank functionality. The study concludes that institutions are significant predictors of IRWH tank sustainability at multiple levels. Agencies implementing community-based water supply systems should either seek to foster suitable institutional arrangements within villages, or identify villages with characteristics of strong institutions in order to maximize their investment.