

@mastersthesis {6387,
	title = {The willingness to pay for rural water supplies},
	year = {1996},
	note = {0577232},
	school = {Colorado School of Mines},
	type = {phdPh.{D}.},
	address = {Ann Arbor},
	abstract = {Many individual households and rural water systems in the Western United States rely on groundwater for their domestic water supplies. Some of these systems have reliability and quality problems which can be addressed through the construction of surface water systems. In order to determine the economic feasibility of building a rural surface water system, the benefits of the proposed system must be estimated and compared to the costs. The three essays included in this dissertation present methods for estimating rural water supply benefits and evaluating the economic feasibility of rural water supply projects. Essay one develops a methodology for estimating the benefits of rural water supply improvements using contingent valuation data. A range of willingness to pay models are estimated. Essay two evaluates the accuracy of using benefits transfer to estimate rural water supply improvement benefits. Benefits transfer guidelines are developed. Essay three presents a benefit-cost application to illustrate how benefit estimation techniques can be used to help make rural water supply policy decisions. Household willingness to pay for rural water supply improvements is estimated to range from \$3.89 to {\textbackslash}\$17.29 per household per month. Variables that influence the willingness to pay for rural water supplies include: income, the cost of obtaining water, measures of use, and the need to haul water for domestic use. The contingent valuation method appears to provide reasonable estimates of the benefits from rural water supply improvements. A comparison of willingness to pay estimates using benefit model transfers and estimates from site specific survey data indicates benefit transfers can result in reasonably accurate benefit estimates. The most important criteria for accurate benefit estimation using benefits transfer include: resource similarity, models that include socio-economic variables, consistent and reliable data sources, and statistics that allow for testing the significance of variables. Benefits transfer appears to provide reasonably accurate estimates of natural resource benefits if a broad based benefit model is used A comparison of the benefits and costs of a proposed rural water system near Sioux Falls, South Dakota indicates the cost of expanding rural water supplies is much greater than user benefits.},
	keywords = {0501:Economics, economics, rural communities, Social sciences, Water Supply},
	url = {http://search.proquest.com/docview/304295594?accountid=14270},
	author = {Piper, Steven Lee}
}
