Learning about Preferences for Clean Air

Despite the enormous health costs of air pollution, willingness-to-pay (WTP) for clean air in highly polluted low-income contexts remains very low. Researchers posit that one significant and understudied reason is that clean air is an experienced good, whose value is revealed only after consumption. This dynamic characterization implies that policymakers cannot use observed WTP as an invariant policy input. Researchers will conduct an experiment in Jakarta, the most polluted city in Southeast Asia, to test the impacts of experience on WTP for clean air. They will leverage air purifier rentals to provide a clean air experience and compare the impacts of this experience treatment against education information treatments. The study’s contribution will be a dynamic characterization of WTP for clean air and the deployment of a novel type of experience-based information campaign, which could provide a more salient treatment than traditional information mediums.