Effects of information on smallholder irrigation farmers’ willingness to pay for groundwater protection
研究加纳小农灌溉农户对地下水保护的支付意愿，发现提供健康或环境信息会导致不同的支付意愿，健康信息组平均每英亩支付19美元，环境信息组为17美元。
Abstract In Ghana, groundwater, accessed through wells and boreholes, is generally unregulated and may be contaminated with pollutants including excess nitrates from agricultural chemical fertilizers. Yet, studies estimating how clean groundwater is valued are not available in Ghana. In addition, some research suggests that the pre‐experiment information provided to survey respondents affects their valuation of an identical outcome. This paper estimates smallholder farmers’ preferences for groundwater protection using pre‐experiment information focused on one of two outcomes: environment or health. The double‐bounded contingent valuation (DBCV) approach is used to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) to protect groundwater quality. The estimation accounts for shift and anchoring effects, which are common issues with the DBCV method. The mean WTP from the health (environmental) information subsample is about US$19 (US$17) per acre, and the values are significantly different between the information conditions. The findings shed light on the importance of using precise information in eliciting WTP in a developing country setting.