Abstract
Little is known about the preference for defensive consumption goods and their defensive attributes under environmental risks in developing countries. The paper takes the water purifier as an example of defensive consumption goods against heavy metal pollution risk from drinking water. Using a survey data in China, the discrete choice experiment method is employed to investigate rural farmers’ preferences for a water purifier. The scientific knowledge and risk perception effects are used to determine farmers’ preferences for the defensive attribute on a water purifier. Using a mixed logit model, rural farmers are found to prefer a water purifier with low price, free installation, a longer warranty period, and a heavy metal filter (i.e., the defensive attribute). Farmers’ neighborhood norm perception dominates the defensive preference while scientific knowledge do not work significantly. More specifically, the more the neighborhood norm perception is recognized, the more likely farmers are to improve their own preferences for the defensive attribute. Affected by the neighborhood norm perception, rural farmers’ preferences for the defensive attribute are found to be increased significantly as average income gaps narrow. The future defensive health policies should be devoted to improving environmental risk awareness and utilizing informal social networks in areas with high environmental risks.
Highlights
Previous studies have rarely considered the preference for defensive consumption goods and those defensive attributes under environmental risks
Healthcare 2020, 8, 47 this study aims to explore the role of scientific knowledge and risk perception played in preference decisions on the defensive attribute under heavy metal pollution risk
A positive sign of preference to the neighborhood norm perception measured by “farmers have relatives, friends, and neighbors who think they should buy a water purifier with the heavy metal filter to reduce the health risks of cadmium” implies that farmers are more likely to choose defensive consumption goods affected by their neighborhood norm perception
Summary
Previous studies have rarely considered the preference for defensive consumption goods and those defensive attributes under environmental risks. Preferences for defensive consumption goods under heavy metal pollution risk. This information is critical for policy makers to perform analysis of socially efficient externality and potential risk mitigation strategies. AsBackground: the Chinese industrial process has rapidly developed, it has become evident that heavy metal pollution are responsible for ahas series of potential health. Become evident that heavy metal wastewater and waste solid cause severe heavy metal pollution on drinking water sources. Minamata disease was caused by the of heavy metal wastewater and waste solid cause severeevent heavy metal pollution ondischarge drinking water sources.
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