title: Willingness-to-pay for an area-wide integrated pest management program to control the Asian tiger mosquito in New Jersey.
abstract: Using contingent valuation we estimated the perceived value of an area-wide integrated pest management program for the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, implemented in Monmouth and Mercer counties, NJ. We estimated residents' maximum willingness-to-pay and perceived monetary benefits (willingness-to-pay excluding residents who protested all types of payments) and payment modality through a telephone survey of 51 randomly selected households. The mean (+/- SE) perceived monetary benefits for an enhanced mosquito abatement program was $9.54 +/- 2.90 per capita per year. Most respondents would have been willing to pay through taxes (35%) or charitable donations (6%) starting then, or through one of these approaches in the future (43%), whereas 16% were completely unwilling to pay any additional costs whatsoever. We projected that the perceived monetary benefits to the counties' 1.01 million residents for an enhanced mosquito control program would be $9.61 million annually. Thus, collectively residents perceived monetary benefits of 3.67 times the combined 2008 annual operating costs of the counties' existing mosquito control programs of $2.61 million.
authors.affiliation: Brandeis University, Schneider Institutes for Health Policy, The Heller School, PO Box 549110, Waltham, MA 02454-9110, USA.
authors.forename: Yara A
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Halasa
authors.forename: Donald S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Shepard
authors.forename: Eve
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wittenberg
authors.forename: Dina M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Fonseca
authors.forename: Ary
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Farajollahi
authors.forename: Sean
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Healy
authors.forename: Randy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gaugler
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Strickman
authors.forename: Gary G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Clark
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000330:Aedes / Q000502:physiology*; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D003625:Data Collection; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007306:Insecticides / Q000191:economics / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009032:Mosquito Control / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods*; D010572:Pest Control, Biological / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D007306:Insecticides