Households’ willingness to pay and preferences for improved cook stoves in Ethiopia

This paper examines households’ preferences, willingness to pay, and determinants of adopting improved cook stoves in rural Ethiopia. The study uses primary household data selected randomly from three districts in Ethiopia’s Oromia region. The data was collected using a mix of contingent and choice experiment methods of valuation. The former used a double-bounded value elicitation method, while the latter used a fractional factorial design to efficiently generate an attribute and level combination for the improved cook stoves. The study also used various discrete choice models for data analysis and also used models which account for scale and preference heterogeneity. The findings show that the sample households were aware of the effects of using traditional cook stoves and the benefits of using improved cook stoves. However, they were constrained by the availability of the new technology and discouraged by the low-quality of the products that they had used so far. The estimated mean willingness to pay ranged from about 150 Birr to 350 Birr which is lower than the market price of the improved cook stoves. Emission reduction, reducing fire risks, and the durability of the cook stove positively affected its adoption, while price discouraged its use. Higher levels of education, higher incomes, non-farm employment, and having more livestock increased the probability of adopting the new gas stoves. The study recommends that policymakers and product designers should use the mean willingness to pay and marginal rate of substitution for the different attributes as a benchmark for product design and pricing that fit households’ preferences and ability to pay. The lower mean willingness to pay means that a public subsidizing policy is needed for effectively disseminating improved cook stoves in rural Ethiopia.