Demand for piped drinking water and a formal sewer system in Bhutan

Ngawang Dendup; Kuenzang Tshering

doi:10.1007/s10018-018-0211-3

Demand for piped drinking water and a formal sewer system in Bhutan

Ngawang Dendup^*, Kuenzang Tshering

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Political Science and Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this study, we estimate demand for sewage connection and piped drinking water in Bhutan. To estimate household willingness to pay, we use data from a sample of 8968 households surveyed through the Bhutan Living Standard Survey of 2012. A hedonic model is estimated using Heckman two-step procedure to overcome the problem of sample selection bias. On average, households in Thimphu city are willing to pay Nu 452 (USD 7) and Nu 124 (USD 2) per month for piped drinking water connections and sewage, respectively. This translates to 8 and 2% of their monthly household expenditure for water and sewage connection, respectively. The households in Thimphu are willing to pay significantly more than the current joint charge of Nu 78 per month for water and sanitation. There is scope for municipal offices in Bhutan to increase their revenues from public services and to cover potential investment, maintenance and operational costs associated with water and sewage services.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	681-703
Number of pages	23
Journal	Environmental Economics and Policy Studies
Volume	20
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10018-018-0211-3
Publication status	Published - 2018 Jul 1

Keywords

Bhutan
Heckman
Hedonic
Sewage
WTP
Water

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Economics and Econometrics
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

Access to Document

10.1007/s10018-018-0211-3

Cite this

@article{4ad84ad7014b49638606a1d7783106d5,

title = "Demand for piped drinking water and a formal sewer system in Bhutan",

abstract = "In this study, we estimate demand for sewage connection and piped drinking water in Bhutan. To estimate household willingness to pay, we use data from a sample of 8968 households surveyed through the Bhutan Living Standard Survey of 2012. A hedonic model is estimated using Heckman two-step procedure to overcome the problem of sample selection bias. On average, households in Thimphu city are willing to pay Nu 452 (USD 7) and Nu 124 (USD 2) per month for piped drinking water connections and sewage, respectively. This translates to 8 and 2% of their monthly household expenditure for water and sewage connection, respectively. The households in Thimphu are willing to pay significantly more than the current joint charge of Nu 78 per month for water and sanitation. There is scope for municipal offices in Bhutan to increase their revenues from public services and to cover potential investment, maintenance and operational costs associated with water and sewage services.",

keywords = "Bhutan, Heckman, Hedonic, Sewage, WTP, Water",

author = "Ngawang Dendup and Kuenzang Tshering",

note = "Funding Information: Acknowledgements Funding was provided by (SANDEE). We would like to thank SANDEE (South Asia Network for Development and Environmental Economics) for financial support. In addition, we would like to all SANDEE advisors for valuable suggestions. We would also like to thank all the three anonymous reviewers for the very useful comments. Finally, we would like to thank Professor Arimura Toshihide of Waseda University for useful comments and support. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018, Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies and Springer Japan KK, part of Springer Nature. Copyright: Copyright 2018 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",

year = "2018",

month = jul,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1007/s10018-018-0211-3",

language = "English",

volume = "20",

pages = "681--703",

journal = "Environmental Economics and Policy Studies",

issn = "1432-847X",

publisher = "Springer Japan",

number = "3",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Demand for piped drinking water and a formal sewer system in Bhutan

AU - Dendup, Ngawang

AU - Tshering, Kuenzang

N1 - Funding Information: Acknowledgements Funding was provided by (SANDEE). We would like to thank SANDEE (South Asia Network for Development and Environmental Economics) for financial support. In addition, we would like to all SANDEE advisors for valuable suggestions. We would also like to thank all the three anonymous reviewers for the very useful comments. Finally, we would like to thank Professor Arimura Toshihide of Waseda University for useful comments and support. Publisher Copyright: © 2018, Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies and Springer Japan KK, part of Springer Nature. Copyright: Copyright 2018 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2018/7/1

Y1 - 2018/7/1

N2 - In this study, we estimate demand for sewage connection and piped drinking water in Bhutan. To estimate household willingness to pay, we use data from a sample of 8968 households surveyed through the Bhutan Living Standard Survey of 2012. A hedonic model is estimated using Heckman two-step procedure to overcome the problem of sample selection bias. On average, households in Thimphu city are willing to pay Nu 452 (USD 7) and Nu 124 (USD 2) per month for piped drinking water connections and sewage, respectively. This translates to 8 and 2% of their monthly household expenditure for water and sewage connection, respectively. The households in Thimphu are willing to pay significantly more than the current joint charge of Nu 78 per month for water and sanitation. There is scope for municipal offices in Bhutan to increase their revenues from public services and to cover potential investment, maintenance and operational costs associated with water and sewage services.

AB - In this study, we estimate demand for sewage connection and piped drinking water in Bhutan. To estimate household willingness to pay, we use data from a sample of 8968 households surveyed through the Bhutan Living Standard Survey of 2012. A hedonic model is estimated using Heckman two-step procedure to overcome the problem of sample selection bias. On average, households in Thimphu city are willing to pay Nu 452 (USD 7) and Nu 124 (USD 2) per month for piped drinking water connections and sewage, respectively. This translates to 8 and 2% of their monthly household expenditure for water and sewage connection, respectively. The households in Thimphu are willing to pay significantly more than the current joint charge of Nu 78 per month for water and sanitation. There is scope for municipal offices in Bhutan to increase their revenues from public services and to cover potential investment, maintenance and operational costs associated with water and sewage services.

KW - Bhutan

KW - Heckman

KW - Hedonic

KW - Sewage

KW - WTP

KW - Water

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85041927122&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85041927122&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10018-018-0211-3

DO - 10.1007/s10018-018-0211-3

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85041927122

SN - 1432-847X

VL - 20

SP - 681

EP - 703

JO - Environmental Economics and Policy Studies

JF - Environmental Economics and Policy Studies

IS - 3

ER -

Demand for piped drinking water and a formal sewer system in Bhutan

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this