Assessing willingness-to-pay of water utility customers for a pro-poor sanitation surcharge in Kenyan cities

Last registered on October 17, 2017

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Assessing willingness-to-pay of water utility customers for a pro-poor sanitation surcharge in Kenyan cities
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0002360
Initial registration date
August 15, 2017

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
October 17, 2017, 2:04 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of California, Berkeley

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor
PI Affiliation
University of California, Berkeley
PI Affiliation
Aquaya Institute
PI Affiliation
Aquaya Institute

Additional Trial Information

Status
Withdrawn
Start date
2017-04-01
End date
2017-09-30
Secondary IDs
Abstract
The objective of this project is to investigate factors associated with stated willingness to pay (WTP) among customers of two water utilities in Kenya for a sanitation surcharge to achieve safe sanitation in low income urban and peri-urban areas. We employ the double-bounded contingent valuation method to measure customer willingness to pay for improved sanitation services to nearby low-income communities. We vary the scenarios quasi-experimentally to study the effects of messaging and surcharge administration. We measure attitudes, demographic and housing characteristics in the survey to see how well they correlate with willingness to pay.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Acey, Charisma et al. 2017. "Assessing willingness-to-pay of water utility customers for a pro-poor sanitation surcharge in Kenyan cities ." AEA RCT Registry. October 17. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2360-1.0
Former Citation
Acey, Charisma et al. 2017. "Assessing willingness-to-pay of water utility customers for a pro-poor sanitation surcharge in Kenyan cities ." AEA RCT Registry. October 17. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2360/history/22425
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We investigate factors associated with stated willingness to pay (WTP), among customers of two water utilities in Kenya, for a sanitation surcharge to achieve safe sanitation in low-income urban and peri-urban areas.
Intervention Start Date
2017-04-01
Intervention End Date
2017-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Mean/Median willingness to pay; factors influencing WTP.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We use a mixed methods approach. We survey a stratified randomized sample of utility customers from two cities in Kenya. We employ the double-bounded contingent valuation method to measure customer WTP for improved sanitation services to nearby low-income communities. We vary the scenarios quasi-experimentally to study the effects of messaging and surcharge administration. We measured attitudes, demographic and housing characteristics in the survey to see how well they correlate with WTP. Qualitative data came from semi-structured in-depth interviews and focus-group discussions (FGDs) with utility customers and interviews with stakeholders.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
A stratified randomized sample of utility customers was done in office by a computer random number generator.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
400
Sample size: planned number of observations
400
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
200
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
A sample of 200 in each experimental arm provided a 80% power to detect a 1.195 standard deviation in WTP using a two-tailed t-test of difference between means in the experimental variants of the survey (ignoring adjustment for multiple hypothesis testing).
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
The Western Institutional Review Board (Olympia, WA, USA)
IRB Approval Date
2017-03-24
IRB Approval Number
B2-Exemption-Khush (03-24-2017)
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials