TY - JOUR
T1 - Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of Citizens’ Willingness to Pay
T2 - Ethical and Policy Implications for the Environment in the United Arab Emirates
AU - Yaghi, Abdulfattah
AU - Alibeli, Madalla
N1 - Funding Information:
This article was funded by a generous research grant from the United Arab Emirates University/ Program for Advanced Research (UPAR) #31H086-UPAR(2) 2014.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, Copyright © American Society for Public Administration.
PY - 2017/1/2
Y1 - 2017/1/2
N2 - Exploring people’s Willingness to Pay (WTP) to protect the environment has ethical dimensions in addition to public policy relevance. This study analyzes WTP in light of four main environmental theories, namely, economic, attitude-behavior, public goods, and altruism. To this end, 1,805 surveys were administered to a national random sample in the United Arab Emirates. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses demonstrated that, albeit environmental attitudes were generally positive, WTP was conditional, fluctuating, and inconsistent. Citizens perceived environmental problems as social rather than personal; thus they shifted responsibility to the government (the other). The study found evidence that while citizens trusted the government as a moral agent that does good, they were overdependent on it to protect the environment. The ethical and public policy implications of the findings are discussed and recommendations are outlined.
AB - Exploring people’s Willingness to Pay (WTP) to protect the environment has ethical dimensions in addition to public policy relevance. This study analyzes WTP in light of four main environmental theories, namely, economic, attitude-behavior, public goods, and altruism. To this end, 1,805 surveys were administered to a national random sample in the United Arab Emirates. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses demonstrated that, albeit environmental attitudes were generally positive, WTP was conditional, fluctuating, and inconsistent. Citizens perceived environmental problems as social rather than personal; thus they shifted responsibility to the government (the other). The study found evidence that while citizens trusted the government as a moral agent that does good, they were overdependent on it to protect the environment. The ethical and public policy implications of the findings are discussed and recommendations are outlined.
KW - United Arab Emirates
KW - Willingness to Pay
KW - attitudes
KW - environment
KW - logistic regression
KW - policy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85051747158&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1080/10999922.2016.1200409
DO - 10.1080/10999922.2016.1200409
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85051747158
SN - 1099-9922
VL - 19
SP - 41
EP - 57
JO - Public Integrity
JF - Public Integrity
IS - 1
ER -