Mother's Willingness to Pay for Her Own and Her Child's Health: a Contingent Valuation Study in Taiwan

We use the contingent valuation (CV) method to estimate mothers' willingness to pay (WTP) to protect themselves and their children from suffering a minor illness-a cold-in Taiwan. WTP is specified as a hedonic function of the duration and severity of the cold (measured alternatively by symptoms experienced and the Quality of Well-Being (QWB) index) and of respondents' socioeconomic characteristics. The average mother is willing to pay more to protect her child than herself from suffering a cold. Median WTP to avoid the average mother's and child's colds are US$37 and US$57, respectively. Adjusting for the greater duration and severity of the average mother's cold suggests that WTP to prevent comparable illnesses is approximately twice as large for the child as for the mother. We also find that mother's WTP is about 20% greater to prevent a son's than a daughter's illness.