Barriers to Public Action for Clean Air

Air pollution represents one of the most severe contemporary public health disasters in India. However, there remains a notable absence of public pressure on elected officials to seek policy solutions to improve air quality. In this study, researchers will examine whether poor air quality can be solely explained by limited private demand for reductions in air pollution, or if failures in the political system contribute as well. Researchers will run an incentivized field evaluation to first test respondents’ willingness to pay to reduce their individual exposure. Next, they will elicit the same respondents’ willingness to participate in a range of public and political actions (both incentivized and not). The study will provide inputs into estimates of willingness to pay for clean air and also test how interventions designed to improve information about air pollution and its health effects and engagement with policy can increase political behavior towards policy solutions.