Willingness to pay to reduce alcohol-related harm in Australian rural communities

Abstract

A common metric is needed to compare the benefits of interventions to reduce alcohol misuse. Monetary value is one such metric that can be elicited using willingness to pay (WTP). This paper explores household WTP for reductions in alcohol-related harm in 20 rural Australian communities. Data were obtained from both postal and face-to-face questionnaires. The results indicate that those with friends or family drinking too much are willing to pay more to reduce alcohol-caused harm, but there was no evidence to suggest those causing and experiencing the most alcohol-caused harm (drinking at high frequency and intensity) had a higher WTP. These findings can be compared with the cost of implementing interventions to determine whether they are likely to be welfare enhancing.

Keywords::

• alcohol
• contingent evaluation
• rural Australia
• welfare
• willingness to pay

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Courtney Breen for coordination of survey development and data collection, the AARC project team for their guidance, and Paul Scuffham, Luke Connelly and Brian Easton for their advice on parts of the project. Any errors are the responsibility of the authors themselves.

Ethical conduct of research

The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This study was conducted as part of the Alcohol Action in Rural Communities Project, which was funded by the Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.