Willing to pay, but unwilling to charge : do 'willingness-to-pay studies' make a difference?

This Field Note explores the approaches to assessing willingness to pay, examines the evidence of previous willingness-to pay surveys carried out in India and takes a critical look at the experience of such surveys in influencing policy change. Clearly, carrying out good surveys is not enough and more efforts need to be made in building capacity for effective policy development. The Field Note concludes that whatever tool is used, until the commitment to policy reform is secured, there may be little benefit in carrying out the study. Willingness-to-pay studies can never be a complete solution; even where there is a real commitment to establishing an understanding of the potential to charge for services, studies must be linked to technically-feasible investment options and realistic approaches to introducing tariff reforms. This means that any research into consumers. Willingness to pay for services should be linked to concrete proposals to change the levels of service provided.