On the contingent valuation of mortality risk reduction in developing countries

Abstract

Using the contingent valuation method in developing countries to value mortality risk reduction is particularly challenging because of the low level of education of the respondents. In this paper we investigate whether some brief training regarding probability and risk concepts has any significant effect on the WTP responses. We elicit individuals’ risk perceptions by providing information on age specific mortality risks and find that people on average overestimate the mortality risk at younger ages and underestimate it at older ages. Our results indicate a significantly higher WTP for the trained sub-sample and WTP is sensitive to the magnitude of risk reduction for both the sub-samples.