WILLINGNESS-TO-PAY FOR AIR-QUALITY - THE CASE OF OUTDOOR EXERCISE

This study uses a contingent valuation (CV) survey to establish a samp le of outdoor exercisers' willingness to pay (WTP) for ambient air qua lity improvements in East Baton Rouge parish, Louisiana. Estimated ann ual median and mean WTP values are $95 and $191, respectively, per per son per year for assurance that ozone levels would not become ''unheal thful'' on any day. The survey informed respondents that in the prior year the local community experienced 14 days on which ozone levels exc eeded federal standards. The study makes the strong assumptions that r espondents believed they were ''buying'' 14 more healthy days and that WTP per day ''bought'' is constant. Given these assumptions, one can scale this WTP response to represent annual medians and means of appro ximately $7 and $14 per person per day, respectively. An econometric p rocedure for generalizing the community's annual WTP to avoid the 14 u nhealthful days yields estimates ranging from $3.21 and $5.36 per pers on per healthy day, or between $12.4 and $20.6 million per year. The u nit day estimates are comparable to CV and household production functi on estimates of WTP in the Los Angeles basin, suggesting their usefuln ess for benefits transfer.