Willingness to pay for digital government services in Egypt: a contingent valuation analysis for electricity meter case

Abstract EN

The purpose of this paper is to use field evidence to examine the effective demand of Egyptian citizens for digital governmental services and determine the amount they are willing to pay as extra fees for that service.

it also investigates the factors affecting both households’ willingness to pay (WTP) and WTP amount for digital governmental services based on their stated preferences.

the researchers adopt the contingent valuation method (CVM) to elicit citizens’ WTP for the online application for electricity meter, if it becomes available, as well as to determine the WTP amount.

the CVM was employed to create a hypothetical market for the online application for electricity meter, based on the stated preferences approach.

researchers developed a survey that was conducted in greater Cairo and collected in July-august 2020.

results of the two logistic regression models showed some variations in the factors affecting WTP Vs.

WTP amount.

they showed that area of residence, income, education level, knowledge of existing online services, internet access and use, and the cost of the traditional service have significant effects on WTP, while gender, income, knowledge about exiting online service, and the cost of the traditional service have significant effects on the WTP amount.

among the remarkable results of the study is that age as well as respondents’ past experiences with online governmental services, have no significant effect on WTP or WTP amount.

the results also indicated that past experience with the traditional services has an insignificant impact on both WTP and WTP amount with regard to the quality and the obstacles facing them.

the study provides recommendations to policy makers regarding design, implementation, and financing of digital governmental services.

it adds to the relatively limited literature on the application of CVM on digital governmental services and on the electricity sector, and to the very few to be applied in the context of Egypt.