Public's preference for the treatment of Ulva prolifera blooms: A choice experiment study in China

Abstract

The continuous outbreak of Ulva prolifera green tide has brought many negative effects on economy and ecological environment in Qingdao, China. In this paper, we use the Random Parameters Logit and Multinomial Logit models to estimate residents' preference for Ulva prolifera treatment attributes based on a choice experiment survey. Additionally, we distinguish residents' free-riding beliefs in the provision and price to test the heterogeneous effects of free-riding beliefs on the stated preferences. The results reveal that Qingdao residents show the strongest preference for the reducing of the cover area of Ulva prolifera, followed by offshore distance, maximum density, and duration times. The annual willingness to pay is 61.68 CNY, 48.3 CNY, 34.8 CNY, and 29.1 CNY per person on average, respectively. In addition, we find that people with weaker belief in free-riding concerning provision show stronger preference on the Ulva prolifera treatment and higher sensitivity of governance costs than people with stronger belief. However, free-riders who want to influence price do not show any different preferences on the treatment of Ulva prolifera with other people. This study is conducted to help make a benefit-cost analysis of the treatment of Ulva prolifera blooms, and can provide theoretical references for designing an incentive-compatible questionnaire.