Attitudes toward Payment for Resource Use: The Case of Domestic Water Consumption

Charles S. Kamen
Peretz Darr Dalinsky

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DOI: 10.2190/T6QR-1B2P-7M7U-PB6Y

Abstract

The interrelationships among socioeconomic variables, attitudes, and domestic water consumption are examined for a sample of 1,892 Israeli urban households. The analysis focuses on willingness to pay more for household water under various conditions, in an attempt to identify factors affecting individual readiness to pay for use of natural resources. The analysis reveals that willingness to pay depends both on the price demanded, and on the purpose of the payment; that the equitability of the system of charges has an effect on willingness to pay; and that particular charge systems are not necessarily effective in attaining their intended ends. Although no relationship is found between attitudes toward water use and actual consumption, the analysis shows that social-psychological variables are important in determining individual readiness to undertake additional expenses which must be incurred as part of efforts to maintain environmental quality.

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