Impact of perceived environmental regulation on rural residents' willingness to pay for domestic waste management

Rural domestic waste seriously pollutes the ecological environment, and it is difficult to treat with government funds alone. Therefore, it is an urgent need to establish a payment system for rural household waste management. Contingent valuation method is applied to obtain rural residents' willingness to pay for domestic waste management. Based on data from the 2021 China Land Economy Survey, this study explores the effects of three perceived environmental regulations on the willingness to pay and payment of domestic waste management by Probit and Tobit. The results show that (1) rural residents' willingness to pay for domestic waste management is high, while the amount they are willing to pay is low. The range of willingness to pay is calculated to be 22.18-33.06 RMB/month. (2) Perceived environmental regulations have a significant effect on rural residents' willingness to pay and the amount for domestic waste management. (3) Environmental improvement and reputation pursuit are the mediating mechanisms of the promotion effect. (4) Guided environmental regulation perception can significantly promote the willingness to pay for domestic waste management of large families, and incentive environmental regulation perception and constrained environmental regulation perception have a greater contribution to the willingness to pay and amount of waste management of large families. The findings can help to develop a system for paying for rural domestic waste management, solve the problem of insufficient financial investment, and provide an important reference for reducing environmental pollution caused by waste.

Automated summary

Rural domestic waste seriously pollutes the ecological environment and cannot be effectively treated with government funds alone. Therefore, it is crucial to establish a payment system for rural household waste management. This study examines the impact of perceived environmental regulations on rural residents' willingness to pay and payment amount for domestic waste management. The findings highlight the high willingness to pay among rural residents, but a low amount they are willing to pay, ranging from 22.18 to 33.06 RMB per month.