Willingness to Pay Per Capita Costs as a Measure of Support for Urban Services

Citizens' Trust in Government and Their Greater Willingness to Pay Taxes in Tanzania: A Case Study of Mtwara, Lindi, and Dar es Salaam Regions

“…Previous literature described the citizens' WTP taxes and how they perceive their government. For instance, Arrington and Jordan (1982) estimated citizens' WTP for government services in North Carolina. Furthermore, respondents were asked whether they were willing to pay certain amounts for services if the government did not provide to them.…”

Are satisfied citizens willing to pay more? Public sector consumerism as equitable social exchange

“…Similarly, Simonsen and Robbins (2003) find that citizen preferences for tax rate increases are influenced by perceptions of the quality of government services. Yet, scholars have also demonstrated that citizens are more likely to express nominal support for the provision of additional public amenities than they are to express a willingnessto-pay for them (Arrington and Jordan, 1982;Wilson, 1983). And in more recent research, Donahue and Miller (2006) use rigorous survey methods but find no relationship between the quality of public safety services and respondents' willingness-to-pay for more provision.…”

“…Although extracting willingness-to-pay from survey respondents is difficult, this approach is a standard practice that is also more rigorous than methods used in previous studies (Arrington and Jordan, 1982;Bennett and Tranter, 1998;Glaser and Hildreth, 1999;Mitchell, 1989;Simonsen and Robbins, 2003;Whitehead, 1995;Wilson, 1983). We asked respondents how much they would be willing to pay in additional property taxes for new parks and recreation facilities and services.…”

“…Customers reveal their willingness-to-pay in the purchase transaction, but demand revelation problems in a public economy make it difficult to observe sincere willingness-to-pay. Nevertheless, we posit that both customers and public sector consumers recognize the necessity of balancing their acquisitive demands with their willingness-topay (Arrington and Jordan, 1982;Wilson, 1983). Our point of departure is whether a citizen's satisfaction with public amenities increases or decreases his or her willingness-topay for public provision.…”

What Should We Do? Public Attitudes about How Local Government Officials Should Confront Fiscal Stress

“…They are often described as favouring increased spending at the same time they believe their taxes are too high or oppose efforts to raise the revenues needed to pay for core services (Arrington and Jordan 1982, Sears and Citrin 1982, Winter and Mouritzen 2001, Gorchow and Wisely 2007a, 2007b. However, there is reason to believe this description overstates the case.…”