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Avoiding health risks from drinking water in Moscow: An empirical analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 1999

BRUCE A. LARSON  and
EKATERINA D. GNEDENKO
BRUCE A. LARSON
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Connecticut, U–21, Storrs, CT 06269
EKATERINA D. GNEDENKO
Affiliation:
Research Assistant, Center for Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, Higher School of Economics, Moscow
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Abstract

Casual observation suggests that many households in Moscow boil water, settle water in pans for some periods (e.g., overnight) before consuming, filter water, and buy bottled water. To date, there has been little empirical analysis of such avoidance behavior. Based on a recently completed survey of 615 households in Moscow, this paper investigates the types and amounts of avoidance measures that are used by households in Moscow to adjust drinking water quality. Survey results show that this is clearly the case: over 88 per cent of the sample boil water regularly due to concerns about water quality; 23 per cent filter water regularly; over 30 per cent settle water regularly; and about 13 per cent buy bottled water regularly. On the other hand, residents are generally content with their cold water supply and quality of delivery. Based on a microeconomic model of household avoidance behavior, logit regression results show how avoidance decisions relate to income, opinions of water quality, and location in the city. It is expected that this analysis from Moscow can also be used as a guide for future studies in other cities in Russia to evaluate opinions of quality, avoidance measures, and citizens' willingness to support public infrastructure projects designed to improve water supply.

Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 4 , Issue 4 , October 1999 , pp. 565 - 581
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This paper was completed as part of HIID's Newly Independent States Environmental Economics and Policy (EEP) Project, Component 4, with financial support from USAID (Cooperative Agreement Number 118–0003–A–00–5311–00). Comments and suggestions are welcomed. Bruce Larson was the Moscow-based Director of the EEP project, and Ekaterina Gnedenko was a consultant to the EEP Project. While the authors are responsible for this analysis, they thank Alla Guzanova and Alexander Temnitsky from the Institute for Economic Forecasting who gave substantial guidance and input into the survey design and who led the pre-test and final survey. The authors also thank Sydney Rosen, Jeff Vincent, Elena Strukova, Alexander Golub and the journal reviewers for comments and suggestions on this analysis.