Institute of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
Department of Economics, Faculty of Business Administration, COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad, 45550, Pakistan.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021 Feb;28(6):6611-6618. doi: 10.1007/s11356-020-11023-4. Epub 2020 Oct 1.
Air pollution has become a major global problem. Thus, the goal of this study was to find out the economic impacts (treatment cost) of air pollution on households as well as the principal factors inducing an individual's willingness to pay for better air quality. District Faisalabad was purposively selected for sampling, as it is a major industrial hub in Pakistan. The required information was collected from 120 sampled respondents through a structured questionnaire. The ordinary least squares method was used for assessing the impact of various factors on the treatment cost of the most recent episode of ailment related to air pollution. The ordered logit model was used to assess the impacts of factors affecting the willingness to pay for programs aimed at the provision of better environmental services. The results revealed that high air pollution in the urban area resulted in more lost workdays and higher health costs. The findings also showed that people were willing to pay for better air quality in urban areas than in rural areas. Based on the findings, it is suggested that the incentive schemes may be designed for the promotion of cleaner services in rural and urban areas.
空气污染已成为一个全球性的主要问题。因此，本研究的目的是找出空气污染对家庭的经济影响（治疗成本），以及导致个人愿意为改善空气质量付费的主要因素。费萨拉巴德地区被选为抽样的目的，因为它是巴基斯坦的一个主要工业中心。通过结构问卷从 120 名抽样受访者那里收集了所需信息。使用普通最小二乘法评估各种因素对与空气污染相关的最近一次疾病治疗成本的影响。使用有序逻辑模型评估影响支付旨在提供更好环境服务的方案的因素的影响。结果表明，城市地区的高空气污染导致更多的工作日损失和更高的医疗费用。研究结果还表明，人们愿意为城市地区的空气质量改善而付费，而不是农村地区。根据研究结果，建议为促进农村和城市地区的清洁服务设计激励计划。
