Is there a stronger willingness to pay for air quality improvement with high education? New evidence from a survey in China

Abstract As a developing country with the largest population and serious environmental pollution in the world, China has made great efforts in air pollution. Air quality improvement depends not only on government administrative regulations, but also on public support, especially how much the public is willing to pay for air quality improvement. Higher education will encourage the public to take actions to improve air quality. However, the confirmation of the causality relationship between WTP and education have been missing. In this study, the micro-household survey data is used to study the relationship between the two, and the following conclusions are drawn: (1)OLS regression model and instrumental variable both determine the positive influence of education level on air quality improvement WTP, and Heckman model further verifies the robustness of the conclusion. (2) According to the results of IV, the WTP of air quality improvement of urban households will increase by 12.632 ~ 18.664 CNY, and that rural households will increase by 11.886 ~ 21.117 CNY for each grade of schooling. (3) The positive influence of education level is greater in the groups of men, higher income, higher awareness of acid rain and more air purifiers,and it has a greater impact on married people in rural areas than in urban areas. (4) The total social and economic value of air quality improvement in China is 34.572 billion CNY to 672.42 trillion CNY.