Willingness to Pay for Air Quality Improvement in Kolkata, India: Revealed and Stated Preferences

There is an urgent need to improve air quality in Kolkata, India. However, the cost of an improvement strategy can be very high. This study uses a survey strategy designed to establish the Revealed Preference (RP) and Stated Preference (SP) of citizens for an air quality improvement programme. A lower bound to household's total RP Willingness To Pay (WTP) can be estimated by measuring the Cost Of Illness (COI) households have to bear on airborne respiratory diseases. The value is compared with the SP estimate obtained in response to a dichotomous choice WTP question. The study found a general WTP for clean air.