The effect of information on preferences for improved household water supply in Indonesia and Nepal

ABSTRACT

Information-based interventions are increasingly used to influence preferences or behaviour. Although information does not directly influence behaviour, it is still commonly used because it is inexpensive and provides immediate impacts. The objective of this study is to compare the impacts of information provision on households’ stated preferences for improved water supply systems in Surabaya, Indonesia, and Kathmandu, Nepal. Surabaya and Kathmandu face different challenges in household water supply services. Stated preferences were elicited by using randomized conjoint analysis. In addition to the preference elicitation, the impacts of information on the willingness to pay were also estimated.

KEYWORDS:

• Field experiments
• randomized conjoint analysis
• stated preference
• supply interruption
• tap water quality
• willingnessto pay

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the editor-in-chief and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions, which significantly improved this paper. The research reported here builds on a dissertation entitled ‘Impacts of information provision on preferences for infrastructures and public services improvements: Randomized conjoint field experiments in Indonesia’ (https://ir.lib.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/files/public/4/48438/20191225134354561572/k8033_3.pdf).

Availability of data and materials

Available from the authors upon request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2021.1991287

Additional information

Funding

The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.