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The Value of clean water: The public's willingness to pay for boatable, fishable, and swimmable quality water
Author(s) -
Carson Richard T.,
Mitchell Robert Cameron
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/93wr00495
Subject(s) - willingness to pay , contingent valuation , water quality , valuation (finance) , environmental economics , work (physics) , clean water act , business , public economics , economics , actuarial science , engineering , microeconomics , accounting , mechanical engineering , ecology , biology
This paper presents the findings of a study designed to determine the national benefits of freshwater pollution control. By using data from a national contingent valuation survey, we estimate the aggregate benefits of meeting the goals of the Clean Water Act. A valuation function is estimated which depicts willingness to pay as a function of water quality, income, and other variables. Several validation checks and tests for specific biases are performed, and the benefit estimates are corrected for missing and invalid responses. The two major policy implications from our work are that the benefits and costs of water pollution control efforts are roughly equal and that many of the new policy actions necessary to ensure that all water bodies reach at least a swimmable quality level will not have positive net benefits.