Suchergebnisse

This study proposes a method for testing whether transient and chronic poverty share common determinants. The authors define transient poverty as the contribution of consumption variability over time to expected consumption poverty. Using household panel data for rural China the authors test whether transient poverty is determined by a process that is similar to chronic poverty. (DSE/DÜI)

ABSTRACTThe demand for environmental quality is often presumed to be low in developing countries due to poverty. Less attention has been paid to the possibility that lack of awareness about adverse health effects of environmental pollution could also keep the demand low. We use a household survey from urban India to estimate the effects of schooling, exposure to mass media, and other measures of awareness on home water purification. We find that these measures of awareness have statistically significant effects on home purification and, therefore, on willingness to pay. These effects are similar in magnitude to the wealth effects. Average costs of different home purification methods are used to generate partial estimates of willingness to pay for better drinking water quality.