Choice experiment study on the willingness to pay to improve electricity services

Modern forms of energy are an important vehicle towards poverty alleviation in rural areas of developing countries. Most developing countries' households rely heavily on wood fuel which impacts on their health and socio-economic status. To ease such a dependency, other modern forms of energy, namely electricity, need to be provided. However, the quality of the electricity service, namely reliability, is an important factor in reducing this dependency. This paper discusses a choice experiment valuation study conducted among electrified rural households located in Kisumu, Kenya, in which the willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid power outages or blackouts was estimated. A mixed logit estimation was applied to identify the various socio-economic and demographic characteristics which determine preferences in reducing power outages among a household's users. In conclusion, several of the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics outlined in this paper were identified and can assist service differentiation to accommodate the diverse households' preferences towards the improvement of the electricity service. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved,