 Demand for Watershed Services: Understanding Local Preferences through a Choice Experiment in the Koshi Basin of NepalRajesh Rai (), Mani Nepal, Priya Shyamsundar () and Laxmi Dutt Bhatta Working Papers from eSocialSciences Abstract: This study undertakes a choice experiment in order to identify differences in local demand for watershed services in the Koshi basin of Nepal. The paper first examines the possibility of using a non-monetary numéraire to estimate household willingness-to-pay for watershed services. Survey results indicate that while some 50% of the population is willing to pay in monetary terms for environmental services, this number goes up to 75% when asked to contribute in labor time. Social benefits from environmental services are 1.4 to 2.2 times higher in labor hours relative to benefits estimated in monetary terms. Thus, in developing countries, households are more likely to express their demand for watershed services by offering their time rather than making a monetary payment. Results also suggest that locational differences matter. Down-stream community members, who practice commercial vegetable farming, have a higher demand for watershed services and are willing to pay a third more than upstream farmers for these services. Keywords: choice experiment; labor contribution; mode of payment; opportunity cost of time; watershed services; Asia; Nepal (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:7292 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Working Papers from eSocialSciences |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.