Chinese Public Willingness to Pay to Avoid Having Nuclear Power Plants in the Neighborhood

Chuanwang Sun, Nan Lyu and Xiaoling Ouyang
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Nan Lyu: Collaborative Innovation Center for Energy Economics and Energy Policy, School of Economics, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
Xiaoling Ouyang: Department of Economics, Business School, East China Normal University, 500 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200241, China

Sustainability, 2014, vol. 6, issue 10, 1-27

Abstract: In spite of the decreasing share of nuclear power all over the world, China resumed the approval of large-scale construction of nuclear power plants in 2012. However, influenced by the worldwide spreading anti-nuclear attitudes, people who live near nuclear power plants showed increasing concerns about nuclear risks. Consequently, the Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) syndrome of nuclear power plants should be evaluated prudently to support the healthy development of nuclear power in China. Based on the face-to-face survey data, this study estimates Chinese public willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid having nuclear power plants in the neighborhood. The respondents include both residents who currently live near and those who would live near nuclear power plants in the future. Considering the possible presence of the sample selection bias caused by protest responses, this paper constructs a two-step sample selection model with the protest responses and the double bounded dichotomous choice (DBDC) questions. Using the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), we measure the effects of influencing factors of public WTP and study the decay of WTP with longer distances from nuclear power plants. The results suggest that most people are willing to pay higher electricity prices to avoid having nuclear power plants in the neighborhood. Comparing the WTP to avoid having nuclear power plants nearby with the current electricity price, we find that there is an increase of 56.7% and 69.1% of respondents’ WTP for a nuclear power plant located 80 km and 30 km, respectively.

Keywords: Not In My Backyard (NIMBY); nuclear power; Contingent Valuation Method (CVM); sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

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