scholarly journals Public Willingness to Pay for and Participate in Sanitation Infrastructure Improvement in Western China's Rural Areas

2022 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simei Wu ◽  
Yang Zhang ◽  
Bao-Jie He
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Willingness To Pay ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Water Availability ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Inner Mongolia ◽  
Willingness To Participate ◽  
Personal Interest ◽  
Infrastructure Improvement ◽  
Sanitation Infrastructure

The suitability and feasibility of public-private partnership (PPP) patterns in a rural context have not been well-documented and understood. To address this research gap and practical plight, this study aims to analyze the rural resident's willingness to pay for and participate in the improvement of rural sanitation facilities, and further explore the drivers and barriers affecting their decisions. This study was performed in rural areas of three western provinces, including Shaanxi, Ningxia, and Inner Mongolia, of western China's rural areas by conducting a survey on 1,248 rural residents. In Inner Mongolia, the proportion of respondents who were willing to pay was highest, while the proportion of respondents who may provide labor was lowest among the three provinces. Respondents from Ningxia had the least willing to pay, and respondents from Shaanxi had the highest willingness to participate. Overall, respondents' rural (living) duration time, personal interest in local government notice, and the latest time when the sanitation facilities were improved could significantly affect their willingness. In Inner Mongolia, occupation and water availability could significantly influence respondents' willingness, and both gender and health conditions had significant impacts. In Ningxia, respondents' personal interest in local government notice had a notable impact on willingness, and low-income respondents showed a more notable willingness to pay and participate. In Shaanxi, occupation and water availability could significantly influence respondents' willingness. Respondents' personal interest in local government notice had a notable impact on their willingness. This study is of significant importance to understand rural resident's participation in sanitation infrastructure improvement to support relevant PPP projects, and is important to solve poverty-caused dilemmas.

scholarly journals A modified choice experiment to examine willingness to participate in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program among low-income parents

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jared T. McGuirt ◽  
Stephanie B. Jilcott Pitts ◽  
Karla L. Hanson ◽  
Molly DeMarco ◽  
Rebecca A. Seguin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Choice Experiment ◽  
Limited Resource ◽  
Community Supported Agriculture ◽  
Willingness To Participate ◽  
Healthy Foods ◽  
Food Quantity ◽  
Access To Healthy Foods

AbstractThere is a need to improve geographical and financial access to healthy foods for limited resource populations in rural areas. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs can improve access to healthy foods in rural and limited-resource populations. However, research is needed to discern the most appealing conditions for a CSA (e.g. price, frequency, food quantity) among rural, low-income customers. The goal of this study was to understand low-income consumers' preferences related to participation in a CSA program, considering price, frequency, food quantity and accessibility (e.g. distance) conditions. A modified exploratory choice experiment exercise was embedded within in-depth interviews to examine willingness to participate in CSA under a variety of conditions among 42 low-income adults with at least one child in the household in North Carolina, New York, Vermont and Washington. Willingness to participate in a CSA under each condition was summed and compared across conditions. Results were stratified by race, number of children and household members and McNemar's test and Student's t-test were used to examine differences in willingness between conditions. Salient quotes were extracted to support themes related to each condition. Our analysis suggests that the ideal CSA would be a full-sized share of eight to nine items of mixed variety, distributed every other week, priced at less than US$15, no more than 10 min further than the supermarket (SM) from their home and preferably less expensive but no more than 20% more expensive than SM prices. CSAs interested in reaching rural low-income populations may benefit from considering these consumer-level preferences.

scholarly journals Rural residents’ understanding and willingness to pay higher prices for mitigation against global warming in China

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 711-728 ◽  
Author(s):  
Genying Chang
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Willingness To Pay ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Multivariate Regression Analysis ◽  
Western China ◽  
Rural Residents ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Climate Policies ◽  
The Cost

Purpose Studies addressing rural residents’ understanding of global warming and their willingness to pay higher prices to mitigate it are very limited. The purpose of this study is to examine the general understanding and attitudes of rural residents in China regarding global warming and their willingness to pay higher prices to mitigate it. Design/methodology/approach This study surveyed 1,185 rural residents in three counties of coastal, middle and western China. Multivariate regression analysis was conducted to reveal the relationships between the willingness to pay higher prices to mitigate global warming and influencing factors. Findings The majority of respondents had heard of global warming; however, their knowledge of the phenomenon and its causes was very limited. Most respondents admitted the likelihood of risks from global warming. Although most respondents thought they had an obligation to mitigate global warming, only a small percentage of them were willing to pay higher prices to address the problem; the unwillingness of respondents to pay higher prices to mitigate global warming may have been associated with their low income and perceived inability to handle the cost, externalisation of responsibility and causes and lack of knowledge of how to affect it. Originality/value This study examines the general understanding and attitudes of rural residents in China regarding global warming and their willingness to pay higher prices to mitigate it. The research is conducive to climate change communications and the implementation of climate policies in China’s rural areas.

Assessing willingness to pay for upgrading toilets in rural areas of Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia, China

2019 ◽  
Vol 156 ◽  
pp. 106-115
Author(s):  
Simei Wu ◽  
◽  
Huimin Li ◽  
Qin Li ◽  
Li Mi
Keyword(s):  
Willingness To Pay ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Inner Mongolia

scholarly journals Farmers’ willingness to pay for digital and conventional credit: Insight from a discrete choice experiment in Madagascar

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. e0257909
Author(s):  
Yaw Sarfo ◽  
Oliver Musshoff ◽  
Ron Weber ◽  
Michael Danne
Keyword(s):  
Willingness To Pay ◽  
Discrete Choice Experiment ◽  
Discrete Choice ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Choice Experiment ◽  
Automated Analysis ◽  
Microfinance Institutions ◽  
Credit Access

In recent decades, microfinance institutions with financial products designed for low income groups have been established all over the world. However, credit access for farmers in developing countries remains low. Digital financial services are rapidly expanding globally at the moment. They also bear great potential to address the credit needs of farmers in remote rural areas. Beyond mobile money services, digital credit is successively offered and also discussed in literature. Compared to conventional credit which is granted based on a thorough assessment of the loan applicant’s financial situation, digital credit is granted based on an automated analysis of the existing data of the loan applicant. Despite the potential of digital credit for serving the credit needs of rural farmers, empirical research on farmers’ willingness to pay for digital credit is non-existent. We employ a discrete choice experiment to compare farmers’ willingness to pay for digital and conventional credit. We apply loan attributes which reflect typical characteristics of both credit products. Our results indicate a higher willingness to pay for digital credit compared to conventional credit. Furthermore, we find that the proximity to withdraw borrowed money has a higher effect on farmers’ willingness to pay for digital credit compared to conventional credit. Furthermore, our results show that instalment repayment condition reduces farmers’ willingness to pay for digital credit whilst increasing their willingness to pay for conventional credit. Additionally, we find that longer loan duration has a higher effect on farmers’ willingness to pay for digital credit compared to conventional credit whereas higher additional credit cost has a lower effect on farmers’ willingness to pay for conventional credit compared to digital credit. Our results highlight the potential of digital credit for agricultural finance in rural areas of Madagascar if a certain level of innovation is applied in designing digital credit products.

TURNING FARMERS INTO SOCIAL FARMER ENTREPRENEURS FOR DISADVANTAGED PEOPLE

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Remus Runcan
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Physical Work ◽  
Healthy Environment ◽  
Rural And Urban Areas ◽  
Rural Development Programme ◽  
Rural And Urban

According to Romania’s National Rural Development Programme, the socio-economic situation of the rural environment has a large number of weaknesses – among which low access to financial resources for small entrepreneurs and new business initiatives in rural areas and poorly developed entrepreneurial culture, characterized by a lack of basic managerial knowledge – but also a large number of opportunities – among which access of the rural population to lifelong learning and entrepreneurial skills development programmes and entrepreneurs’ access to financial instruments. The population in rural areas depends mainly on agricultural activities which give them subsistence living conditions. The gap between rural and urban areas is due to low income levels and employment rates, hence the need to obtain additional income for the population employed in subsistence and semi-subsistence farming, especially in the context of the depopulation trend. At the same time, the need to stimulate entrepreneurship in rural areas is high and is at a resonance with the need to increase the potential of rural communities from the perspective of landscape, culture, traditional activities and local resources. A solution could be to turn vegetal and / or animal farms into social farms – farms on which people with disabilities (but also adolescents and young people with anxiety, depression, self-harm, suicide, and alexithymia issues) might find a “foster” family, bed and meals in a natural, healthy environment, and share the farm’s activities with the farmer and the farmer’s family: “committing to a regular day / days and times for a mutually agreed period involves complying with any required health and safety practices (including use of protective clothing and equipment), engaging socially with the farm family members and other people working on and around the farm, and taking on tasks which would include working on the land, taking care of animals, or helping out with maintenance and other physical work”

Households Discrimination in School Enrolment in Pakistan: Does gender matter?

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-36
Author(s):  
Ali Muhammad ◽  
Zahoor Ul Haq ◽  
Imad Khan
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Gender Disparity ◽  
School Enrollment ◽  
Female Education ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Socio Economic Factors

This study uses Pakistan Social and Living Measurement Survey 2016 to study gender discrimination in school enrollment across the four provinces of Pakistan using bi-variate analysis. Results show that there is highly significant difference between male and female education in rural areas (x^2=4940.50 and p<0.05). Analysis indicate that gender disparity in enrollment is significantly higher in low income households (x^2=115.468 and P<0.05). The study also showed that as compared to male, fewer female are enrolled in both public and private sectors. Hence, socio-economic factors play important role in making decision about children enrollment in different types of school. The study recommends that government to take appropriate steps to reduce gender discrimination in school enrollment by offering subsidy on female education in the country.

Empathy not quarantined: Association between people’s empathy to others and the COVID-19 pandemic situations based on a national survey study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhibin Jiang ◽  
Fan Yang ◽  
Bu Zhong ◽  
Xuebing Qin
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Social Media ◽  
National Survey ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Affective Response ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
Income Levels ◽  
The Social

BACKGROUND The Covid-19 pandemic had turned the world upside down, but not much is known about how people’s empathy might be affected by the pandemic. OBJECTIVE This study examined 1) how empathy towards others might be influenced by the social support people obtained by using social media; and 2) how the individual demographics (e.g., age, income) may affect empathy. METHODS A national survey (N = 943) was conducted in China in February 2020, in which the participants read three real scenarios about low-income urban workers (Scenario I), small business owners in cities (Scenario II), and farmers in rural areas (Scenario III) who underwent hardship due to COVID-19. After exposure to others’ difficulties in the scenarios, the participants’ empathy and anxiety levels were measured. We also measured the social support they had by using social media. RESULTS Results show that social support not only positively impacted empathy, β = .30, P < .001 for Scenario I, β = .30, P < .001 for Scenario II, and β = .29, P < .001 for Scenario III, but also interacted with anxiety in influencing the degree to which participants could maintain empathy towards others, β = .08, P = .010 for Scenario I, and β = .07, P = .033 for scenario II. Age negatively predicted empathy for Scenario I, β = -.08, P = .018 and Scenario III, β = -.08, P = .009, but not for Scenario II, β = -.03, P = .40. Income levels – low, medium, high – positively predicted empathy for Scenario III, F (2, 940) = 8.10, P < .001, but not for Scenario I, F (2, 940) = 2.14, P = .12, or Scenario II, F (2, 940) = 2.93, P = .06. Participants living in big cities expressed greater empathy towards others for Scenario III, F (2, 940) = 4.03, P =.018, but not for Scenario I, F (2, 940) = .81, P = .45, or Scenario II, F (2, 940) = 1.46, P =.23. CONCLUSIONS This study contributes to the literature by discovering the critical role empathy plays in people’s affective response to others during the pandemic. Anxiety did not decrease empathy. However, those gaining more social support on social media showed more empathy for others. Those who resided in cities with higher income levels were more empathetic during the COVID-19 outbreak. This study reveals that the social support people obtained helped maintain empathy to others, making them resilient in challenging times.

scholarly journals Will Households Invest in Safe Sanitation? Results from an Experimental Demand Trial in Nakuru, Kenya

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 4462
Author(s):  
Rachel Peletz ◽  
Caroline Delaire ◽  
Joan Kones ◽  
Clara MacLeod ◽  
Edinah Samuel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Market Prices ◽  
Price Point ◽  
Improved Sanitation ◽  
Sanitation Infrastructure ◽  
The City ◽  
Experimental Demand

Unsafe sanitation is an increasing public health concern for rapidly expanding cities in low-income countries. Understanding household demand for improved sanitation infrastructure is critical for planning effective sanitation investments. In this study, we compared the stated and revealed willingness to pay (WTP) for high-quality, pour-flush latrines among households in low-income areas in the city of Nakuru, Kenya. We found that stated WTP for high-quality, pour-flush latrines was much lower than market prices: less than 5% of households were willing to pay the full costs, which we estimated between 87,100–82,900 Kenyan Shillings (KES), or 871–829 USD. In addition, we found large discrepancies between stated and revealed WTP. For example, 90% of households stated that they would be willing to pay a discounted amount of 10,000 KES (100 USD) for a high-quality, pour-flush latrine, but only 10% of households redeemed vouchers at this price point (paid via six installment payments). Households reported that financial constraints (i.e., lack of cash, other spending priorities) were the main barriers to voucher redemption, even at highly discounted prices. Our results emphasize the importance of financial interventions that address the sizable gaps between the costs of sanitation products and customer demand among low-income populations.

scholarly journals 1535. Impact of Defunding Family Planning Health Centers on Gonorrhea and Chlamydia Cases in Iowa: A Spatiotemporal Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S768-S768
Author(s):  
Megan L Srinivas ◽  
Eileen Yang ◽  
Weiming Tang ◽  
Joseph Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Family Planning ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Spatiotemporal Analysis ◽  
Incidence Rates ◽  
Health Centers ◽  
Transmitted Infection ◽  
Missed Opportunities ◽  
Linear Regression Modeling ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Fifteen states have defunded family planning health centers (FPHCs), causing thousands to be left without health services. This has accelerated in the COVID-19 era. FPHCs provide low-income individuals in rural areas with essential primary care services, including sexually transmitted infection prevention, testing, and treatment. The purpose of this analysis is to use spatiotemporal methods to examine the impact of FPHC closures in Iowa on the reported number of gonorrhea and chlamydia cases at the county level. Methods This analysis investigates the association between FPHC closures and changes in the number of gonorrhea and chlamydia cases between 2016 and 2018. Iowa implemented defunding policies for family planning clinics, resulting in four FPHC closures in June 2017. 2016 pre-closure STI incidence rates were compared to 2018 post-closure rates. Gonorrhea and chlamydia rates in the four Iowa counties with clinic closures were compared to the 95 Iowa counties without closures. T tests were used to compare changes in reported gonorrhea and chlamydia rates in the two settings. Linear regression modeling was used to determine the relationship between clinic closures and changes in gonorrhea and chlamydia cases. Results The gonorrhea burden in Iowa increased from 83 cases per 100,000 people in 2016 to 153.8 cases per 100,000 people in 2018. The four counties with clinic closures experienced a significantly larger increase (absolute 217 cases per 100,000 population) in their gonorrhea rate compared to counties without FPHC closures (absolute 121 cases per 100,000 population). There was also a significant relationship between clinic closures and increasing gonorrhea rates (p = 0.0015). Over the three-year period, there was no change in chlamydia rates (p = 0.1182). However, there was a trend towards counties with more FPHC closures having a higher number of chlamydia cases (p = 0.057). Conclusion Despite the fact that many STI diagnoses are made and reported by FPHCs, our data suggest that clinic closures may have contributed to an increase in gonorrhea and chlamydia cases. This is consistent with delayed diagnoses and missed opportunities for providing essential STI services to vulnerable and under-served rural residents. Legislative action is urgently needed to curtail this trend. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

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