Public preferences for improved urban waste management: a choice experiment

A discrete choice experiment, aiming to elicit public preferences for improvements in solid waste services, is carefully administered across socioeconomic zones in the city of Hawassa, Ethiopia. Observed and unobserved preference heterogeneity are analyzed using mixed logit choice models. The result...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environment and development economics 2018-04, Vol.23 (2), p.184-197
Main Authors: Tarfasa, Solomon, Brouwer, Roy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Child labor
Children & youth
Cities
Corruption
Cost recovery
Design
Developing countries
Ditches
Economic models
Experiments
Families & family life
Females
Focus groups
Garbage collection
Heterogeneity
Households
Investments
Labor
Landfill
Landfills
LDCs
Low income areas
Low income groups
Management services
Municipal waste management
Neighborhoods
Preferences
Public health
Public opinion
Public sector
Quality
Recycling
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Respondents
Rural areas
Sewage
Sewers
Socioeconomic factors
Solid waste disposal
Solid waste management
Solid wastes
Stated preference techniques
Sustainable development
Urban areas
Urbanization
Waste disposal
Waste disposal sites
Waste management
Waste management industry
Waste sorting
Water quality
Water supply
Willingness to pay
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Summary:A discrete choice experiment, aiming to elicit public preferences for improvements in solid waste services, is carefully administered across socioeconomic zones in the city of Hawassa, Ethiopia. Observed and unobserved preference heterogeneity are analyzed using mixed logit choice models. The results show that there exists substantial willingness to pay to increase collection frequency and separate recyclable waste. A new issue is the focus on child labor in the waste management sector. Significant gender effects are found: women are more interested than men in increasing waste collection frequency and value the abolishment of child labor more highly, as do higher income households. As expected, respondents living in wealthier neighborhoods are more likely to pay higher service charges. Education indirectly influences preferences for waste separation. The study provides important insight into the social benefits of public investment decisions to improve the quality of solid waste management services in large cities in Ethiopia.
ISSN:1355-770X
1469-4395
DOI:10.1017/S1355770X17000432