Public willingness to pay for sand and dust weather mitigation: A case study in Beijing, China

摘要

China's capital city, Beijing, has been suffering from sand and dust weather with high frequency since 2000. Billions of dollars have been invested into overcoming this hazard, but research with regard to the economic benefit of mitigating this hazard. This paper employed the contingent valuation method research, attempts to investigate the Beijing households' willingness to pay for sand and dust weather mitigation and its determinants. The willingness to pay data were obtained from a double-bounded discrete choice format. Because of 149 respondents (18% of the total samples) refused to pay for the goods, we applied the spike model for processing the data. The annual mean willingness to pay is 404.35 Chinese Yuan. Beijing households are willing to pay a total amount of 2.18 billion Chinese Yuan annually for mitigating sand and dust weather. Furthermore, respondents' income, presence of children, and social norm are significantly correlated with the willingness to pay. This paper suggested enhancing pro environment education and that government credibility and will be of great importance in promoting public participation in sand and dust weather management. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.