Browsing by Author "Qin, Ping"

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Chinese Local Residents’ Attitudes toward Shale Gas Exploitation: The Role of Energy Poverty, Environmental Awareness, and Benefit and Risk Perceptions
(2017-12) Yu, Chin-Hsien; Tan, Huimin; Qin, Ping; Chen, Xiaolan; Chin-Hsien Yu, corresponding author: Tel.: +86 18628328111; Email address: chenxiaolan@scu.edu.cn. Institute of Development, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, Sichuan 611130, PR China. Huimin Tan, School of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, Sichuan 611130, PR China. Ping Qin, Department of Energy Economics, School of Economics, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China. Xiaolan Chen, School of Economics, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, PR C
This study investigates Chinese local residents’ attitudes toward shale gas exploitation through an interview of 730 local residents in two counties of Sichuan Province (Weiyuan County and Gong County) and explores the determinants of their support or opposition. It is the first study in China to explore local residents’ attitudes, and we comprehensively identify underlying factors accounting for such attitudes, including energy poverty, environmental awareness, and risk and benefit perceptions. The results show that the respondents are generally supportive of toward shale gas development, no matter whether the shale well is built in their hometown or at a distance. About 70% of the respondents express support or strong support for shale gas exploitation, and less than 20% of them oppose or strongly oppose such development. The results also show that the respondents are more likely to oppose shale gas exploitation if they perceive lower benefits or higher risks associated with shale development, if they are more environmentally aware, or if they suffer from a higher degree of energy poverty.
Household decision making and the influence of spouses’ income, education, and communist party membership: A field experiment in rural China
(2009-04-20T11:58:30Z) Carlsson, Fredrik; Martinsson, Peter; Qin, Ping; Sutter, Matthias
We study household decision making in a high-stakes experiment with a random sample of households in rural China. Spouses have to choose between risky lotteries, first separately and then jointly. We find that spouses’ individual risk preferences are more similar the richer the household and the higher the wife’s relative income contribution. A couple’s joint decision is typically determined by the husband, but women who contribute relatively more to the household income, women in high-income households, women with more education than their husbands, and women with communist party membership have a stronger influence on the joint decision.
Household Decision Making in Rural China: Using Experiments to Estimate the Influences of Spouses
(2010-08) Carlsson, Fredrik; He, Haoran; Martinsson, Peter; Qin, Ping; Sutter, Matthias
Many economic decisions are made jointly within households. This raises the question about spouses’ relative influence on joint decisions and the determinants of relative influence. Using a controlled experiment (on inter-temporal choice), we let each spouse first make individual decisions and then make joint decisions with the other spouse. We use a random parameter probit model to measure the relative influence of spouses on joint decisions. In general, husbands have a stronger influence than wives. However, in richer households and when the wife is older than the husband, we find a significantly stronger influence of the wife on joint decisions.
Households’ Risk Perceptions in Response to Shale Gas Exploitation: Evidence from China
(2017-10) Yu, Chin-Hsien; Huang, Shih-Kai; Qin, Ping; Chen, Xiaolan; Chin-Hsien Yu, Institute of Development Studies, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, Sichuan 611130, PR China. Shih-Kai Huang, Department of Emergency Management, Jacksonville State University, Alabama, USA. Ping Qin, Department of Energy Economics, School of Economics, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China. Xiaolan Chen (corresponding author: chenxiaolan@scu.edu.cn), School of Economics, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, PR China.
In 2014, China became the world’s third country to realize shale gas commercial development, following the United States and Canada. So far, there has been a lack of comprehensive discussion on risk perception related to shale gas in China. This paper aims to understand Chinese residents’ risk perceptions toward shale gas exploitation. A survey was conducted with 730 interviewed participants in two counties of Sichuan province (Weiyuan County and Gong County). This study shows that, in China, an elderly female tends to perceive lower risks, and a higher education level is commonly associated with lower risk perception. Besides the socio-demographic characteristics, two major findings are also explored in this study. First, household’s perceived benefits from shale gas exploitation do not statistically significantly affect their risk concerns. Second, the respondents’ environmental consciousness, including their anticipation of environmental impacts and their perceptions about environmental degradation, plays a crucial role in their perception of the risks of shale gas exploitation. This implies that local residents’ judgments on the severity of environmental impacts significantly contribute to their risk perceptions. These findings therefore contribute to local authorities’ policy making in protecting local residents from the risks of shale gas exploitation and in better communicating about risk with the residents.
It is better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix: a study of concern for relative standing in rural China
(2008-05-22T09:57:34Z) Carlsson, Fredrik; Qin, Ping
This paper examines the concern for relative standing among rural households in China. We use a survey-experimental method to measure to what extent poor Chinese farmers care about their relative income and find that the respondents care to a high degree. Compared to previous studies in developed countries, the concern for relative standing seems to be equally strong among rural households in China. This should be seen in the light of the rapid change China has undergone, with high growth, increased inequality, and the highest urban-rural income ratio in the world. Thus, the rural population, which is lagging behind, is suffering not only from the low absolute income but also from low relative income.
Paying for Mitigation: A Multiple Country Study
(2010-05-17T09:21:57Z) Carlsson, Fredrik; Kataria, Mitesh; Krupnick, Alan; Lampi, Elina; Löfgren, Åsa; Qin, Ping; Chung, Susie; Sterner, Thomas
Unique survey data from a contingent valuation study conducted in three different countries (China, Sweden, and the United States) were used to investigate the ordinary citizen’s willingness to pay (WTP) for reducing CO2 emissions. We find that a large majority of the respondents in all three countries believe that the mean global temperature has increased over the last 100 years and that humans are responsible for the increase. A smaller share of Americans, however, believes these statements, when compared to the Chinese and Swedes. A larger share of Americans is also pessimistic and believes that nothing can be done to stop climate change. We also find that Sweden has the highest WTP for reductions of CO2, while China has the lowest. Thus, even though the Swedes and Chinese are similar to each other in their attitudes toward climate change, they differ considerably in their WTP. When WTP is measured as a share of household income, the willingness to pay is the same for Americans and Chinese, while again higher for the Swedes.
Risk, Relative Standing and Property Rights: Rural Household Decision-Making in China
(2009-01-21T15:46:35Z) Qin, Ping
The Climate Decade: Changing Attitudes on Three Continents
(2020-05) Carlsson, Fredrik; Kataria, Mitesh; Krupnick, Alan; Lampi, Elina; Löfgren, Åsa; Qin, Ping; Sterner, Thomas; Yang, Xiaojun; Department of Economics, University of Gothenburg
We examine how attitudes and willingness to pay (WTP) for climate policies have changed over the past decade in the United States, China, and Sweden. All three countries exhibit an increased willingness to pay for climate mitigation. Ten years ago, Sweden had a larger fraction of believers in anthropogenic climate change and a higher WTP for mitigation, but today the national averages are more similar. Although we find convergence in public support for climate policy across countries, there is considerable divergence in climate attitudes and preferences within countries, particularly the United States. Political polarization explains part of this divergence.
The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth - A Multiple Country Test of an Oath Script
(2010-11) Carlsson, Fredrik; Kataria, Mitesh; Krupnick, Alan; Lampi, Elina; Löfgren, Åsa; Qin, Ping; Sterner, Thomas; Chung, Susie
Hypothetical bias is one of the main issues bedeviling the field of nonmarket valuation. The general criticism is that survey responses reflect how people would like to behave, rather than how they actually behave. In our study of climate change and emissions reductions, we took advantage of the increasing bulk of evidence from psychology and economics that addresses the effects of making promises, in order to investigate the effect of an oath script in a contingent valuation survey. The survey was conducted in Sweden and China, and its results indicate that an oath script has significant effects on respondent behavior in answering willingness-to-pay (WTP) questions, some of which vary by country. In both countries, the share of zero WTP responses and extremely high WTP responses decreases when an oath script is used, which also results in lower variance. In China, the oath script also reduces the average WTP, cutting it by half in certain instances. We also found that the oath script has different impacts on various respondent groups. For example, without the oath script, Communist party members in China are more likely than others to have a positive WTP for emissions reductions, but with the oath script, there is no longer any difference between the groups.