Your search found 2 records
1 Kassahun, H. T.; Nicholson, C. F.; Jacobsen, J. B.; Steenhuis, T. S. 2016. Accounting for user expectations in the valuation of reliable irrigation water access in the Ethiopian highlands. Agricultural Water Management, 168:45-55. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.01.017]
Irrigation water ; Water availability ; Water users ; User charges ; Farmers attitudes ; Contingent valuation ; Watersheds ; Econometric models ; Highlands ; Irrigated land ; Crop yield ; Households ; Developing countries / Ethiopia / Koga Watershed
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H047632)
(0.64 MB)
We estimate the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for reliable access to irrigation water for a sample of farmers in a watershed of the Ethiopian highlands who do not have prior experience with irrigation. To address the lack of previous irrigation experience, we account for underlying expectations of future irrigation productivity using an Integrated Choice and Latent Variable (ICLV) econometric model. We then compare the ICLV estimates with alternative models that do not account for expectations regarding productivity increases with irrigation. Our results indicate that both the ICLV and alternative provide similar conclusions with respect to the mean WTP for reliable irrigation water access. However, ignoring farmers’ perceptions would understate the uncertainty of the mean or aggregate WTP.
2 Kassahun, H. T.; Jacobsen, J. B.; Nicholson, C. F. 2020. Revisiting money and labor for valuing environmental goods and services in developing countries. Ecological Economics, 177:106771. (Online first) [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106771]
Environmental services ; Developing countries ; Willingness to pay ; Labour ; Irrigation water ; Watersheds ; Households ; Rural areas ; Models ; Case studies / Ethiopia / Koga Watershed
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H049908)
(1.18 MB)
Many Stated Preference studies conducted in developing countries provide estimates of a low willingness to pay (WTP) for a wide range of goods and services. However, recent studies in these countries indicate that this may partly be a result of the choice of payment vehicle, not the preference for the good. Thus, low WTP may not indicate a low welfare effect for public projects in developing countries. We argue that in a setting where 1) there is imperfect substitutability between money and other measures of wealth (e.g., labor), and 2) institutions are perceived to be corrupt, including payment vehicles that are currently available to the individuals and less prone to corruption may be needed to obtain valid welfare estimates. Otherwise, we risk underestimating the welfare benefit of projects. We demonstrate this through a rural household contingent valuation (CV) survey designed to elicit the value of access to reliable irrigation water in Ethiopia. Of the total average annual WTP for access to reliable irrigation service, cash contribution comprises only 24.41%. The implication is that socially desirable projects might be rejected based on cost-benefit analysis as a result of welfare gain underestimation due to mismatch of payment vehicles choice in valuation studies.
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