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Perceptions of Quality and Household Water Usage: A Representative Study in Jacksonville, FL

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Abstract

When faced with the fear of low-quality tap water, households are motivated to seek out and use alternatives. This study investigated the role of quality perception and aesthetics on choices among three modes of household water usage: unfiltered tap water, filtered tap water, and bottled water. The data were based on a telephone survey of randomly selected households in Jacksonville, FL, conducted during March 2016. As the three modes of water usage were not mutually exclusive, a multivariate probit model was fitted and simultaneous parameter estimates were generated for each of three binary equations. The key results suggest that concerns regarding safety, contamination and sickness linked to unfiltered tap water are associated with increased bottled water usage in the home, but they have no effect on water filter usage. By contrast, complaints about foul-smelling water are associated with increased usage of water filters. In addition, the evidence implies that while water filter usage increases with household income, bottled water usage appears insensitive to changes in income. Finally, African-American households have a higher probability than other racial groups of using bottled water in the home, all else equal.

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Notes

  1. Model specifications were explored with separate coefficients for each government agency, but the high correlation among the variables introduced multicollinearity and reduced degrees of freedom. The estimation results were not qualitatively different.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge support from the Environmental Center, University of North Florida (Seed Grant, 2015). We are thankful to Dr. Michael Binder (Faculty Director, Public Opinion Research Laboratory) and Andrew Hopkins (Coordinator, Public Opinion Research Laboratory) for their support in pursuing the survey, and to Art Sams for providing excellent research assistance. Lastly, we are very much thankful to Dr. Mary Beal for her involvement and all the students who volunteered their time for the survey. Dr. David Lambert at the University of North Florida (Director, Environmental Center) provided very useful comments. However, the opinions expressed here are solely those of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics and Geography, University of North Florida, 1 UNF Drive, Jacksonville, Florida, 32224, USA

    Russell Triplett, Chiradip Chatterjee & Christopher K. Johnson

  2. Department of Accounting and Finance, University of North Florida, 1 UNF Drive, Jacksonville, Florida, 32224, USA

    Parvez Ahmed

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  1. Russell Triplett
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  2. Chiradip Chatterjee
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Correspondence to Russell Triplett.

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Triplett, R., Chatterjee, C., Johnson, C.K. et al. Perceptions of Quality and Household Water Usage: A Representative Study in Jacksonville, FL. Int Adv Econ Res 25, 195–208 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11294-019-09735-6

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