Assessment of average willingness to pay for preserving the ecology and environment along Baotian highway

The average Willingness-To-Pay (WTP) is a measuring scale of the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) that can be used to estimate the total economic value of environmental goods.Using the case of protecting the ecology along the Baotian highway as example,here we analyze the WTP of highway residents by means of Payment Card CVM.Our results reveal differences between the average WTPs of residents that have been grouped according to income,education level,age,sex and professional stability,with the t-test showing particularly significant differences between the first two groups.Covariance analysis shows that income is the key factor underlying not only this result,but also the weak WTP-based distinction between the other three groups.Finally,we use a regression model to compute that the average WTP amount per resident (for preserving highway ecology) is 42.77 RMB Yuan.