Farmers' Willingness-to-Pay for Environment and Human Health and Adoption of IPM

Although chemical control of pests increases crop production, it brings a lot of damage to environment and human health. There exist a number of alternative methods that are not so harmful to environment and human health. However, whether and how much in extent these technologies adopted are plausible depends on the comparison of benefit-cost between chemical control and the alternative control methods (such as Integrated Pest Management, IPM) and farmers' willingness-to-pay (WTP) for envirorment and human health. Using contingent valuation method (CVM), the author investigates farmers' WTP for environment and human health, recognizes the factors influencing WTP, and accordingly points out the importance of pest control technology extension and government regulation of pesticides.

Estimating the Willingness-to-Pay for Urban Housing in Chinese Cities

The housing market, an important component of the urban economy, is closely integrated with urban development. Urban development attracts labor inflows which then increase the housing demand in the cities. Urban dwellers＇ willingness-to-pay （WTP） for housing, as part of their living costs, depends on their incomes they can earn in the cities and the quality of life （QOL） they want to enjoy. Urban wage growth and quality of life improvements are always accompanied by increased demand and increased WTP. This paper uses the average wages of fully-employed employees and various city indicators to reflect the urban QOL to explain the relationships among people＇s WTP for housing, their urban wages and their urban QOL across 35 metropolitan cities in China. The empirical results illustrate that the urban QOL represented by city indicators and the average wage level accounts for approximately 70% of the housing price variation. Although wages still have significant impact on the WTP, the QOL in Chinese metropolitan cities tends to contribute more to the residents＇ WTP for housing, indicating that social and natural environments are valued by urban residents more and more.

Residents’ Preferences for Rural Housing Disaster Insurance Attributes in Central and Western Tibet

Understanding the heterogeneous preferences of individuals for disaster insurance attributes is critical for product improvement and policy design.In an era of global environmental change,the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a hotspot of natural hazards.Improving the capability of rural housing disaster insurance to foster local residents’disaster resilience is of great signifcance but remains under addressed.We used a discrete choice experiment approach to provide the frst estimates of rural residents’preferences for rural housing disaster insurance attributes in central and western Tibet.We estimated residents’preferences and willingness-to-pay for the sum insured,subsidy rate,insured object,and perils covered.The potential impacts of increasing the sum insured,expanding the insured object,and lowering subsidy rates were evaluated.Our results suggest that residents prefer products with a high sum insured,high subsidy rate,and a complete list of insured objects.Residents who have experienced specifc hazards tend to prefer the corresponding perils covered.Females and residents who have a closer social network are more likely to purchase insurance.Product improvement and policy simulation results suggest that,while lowering the subsidy rate,increasing the sum insured and expanding the insured object could promote participation and improve residents’welfare.Our results could improve the understanding of the preferences of households in remote regions and support policy implementations.