WATER SOURCE AS A HOUSING CHARACTERISTIC - HEDONIC PROPERTY VALUATIONAND WILLINGNESS-TO-PAY FOR WATER

Using data from a large representative sample of rural households in o ne region of the Philippines, we estimate the determinants of the rent al value of dwellings using the bid-rent approach to the hedonic price model. Our particular interest is in the relative valuation these hou seholds place on owning a private source of water and distance to a pu blic or communal source. We find that low-, middle-, and high-income h ouseholds value an in-house piped water source highly relative to othe r characteristics of their homes. Middle- and high-income households v alue a deep well or piped water in the yard, although at a substantial ly lower level than piped water in the house. It is somewhat surprisin g to find that, except in the case of high-income families, households appear to gain little or no utility from having a communal source of water, such as a river, lake, or public tap, closer to their homes. As a consequence, public water policies that emphasize improving the qua lity and proximity of communal sources would be inappropriate for the region represented by this sample.