2002 World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists

Low coverage and limited access to basic water and sanitation services in many developing nations has been attributed to poor levels of cost recovery and the prevalence of a low equilibrium trap that relates poor payment to poor or inappropriate services and the further unwillingness to pay for service improvement. It is thought that the adoption of a Demand Responsive Approach can help service providers to break out of this negative cycle. DRA involves measuring and responding to household preferences for service attributes including supply reliability and tariffs. DRA therefore incorporates the assessment of willingness to pay and a potential role for contingent valuation methods. Although sector professionals are still debating the role of hypothetical methods, a growing body of CV studies provides an interesting data set for evaluating the messages arising from DRA. This paper present the results of a meta analysis of 28 studies to explore the variables that really matter for implementing a truly demand responsive approach. As can be expected income level is crucial for predicting viable levels of household payment.



	Paper Title:	Pipe Dreams: Investigating The Demand Responsive Approach To Water And Sanitation Provision In The Developing World
	Presenting Author:	Dominic Moran (Scottish Agricultural College)
	Coauthor 1:	Petrina Rowcroft
	Coauthor 2:
	Coauthor 3:
	Abstract:	Low coverage and limited access to basic water and sanitation services in many developing nations has been attributed to poor levels of cost recovery and the prevalence of a low equilibrium trap that relates poor payment to poor or inappropriate services and the further unwillingness to pay for service improvement. It is thought that the adoption of a Demand Responsive Approach can help service providers to break out of this negative cycle. DRA involves measuring and responding to household preferences for service attributes including supply reliability and tariffs. DRA therefore incorporates the assessment of willingness to pay and a potential role for contingent valuation methods. Although sector professionals are still debating the role of hypothetical methods, a growing body of CV studies provides an interesting data set for evaluating the messages arising from DRA. This paper present the results of a meta analysis of 28 studies to explore the variables that really matter for implementing a truly demand responsive approach. As can be expected income level is crucial for predicting viable levels of household payment.
	Link to paper:	Not available

	Session / Day / Time	17E / Thursday / 4:30 - 6:00 pm

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