A Study On The Effect Of Public Household Income On Willingness To Pay

China has abundant marine tourism resources,and the marine tourism industry has made great contributions to China's economic development.As a kind of public goods,marine tourism resources lack the corresponding market to evaluate their value.The contingent valuation method(CVM)is a method that can effectively evaluate its non-market value.As an important part of the non-market value of marine tourism resources,non-use value has important research significance.Many existing studies have shown that public household income is the most important factor influencing the willingness to pay(WTP)by the contingent valuation method(CVM).Therefore,under the background of the steady increase of public household income level,it is of great significance to study the influence of public household income on the WTP of CVM by taking the non-use value assessment of Marine tourism resources in China as an example.In this paper,the least square regression model,quantile regression model and Box-Cox regression model are used to study the non-use value of three representative Marine tourism resources,namely beach,coral reef and Marine culture,by taking Zhoushan Archipelago of Zhejiang Province and Sanya of Hainan Province and its islands as the case.Through the survey,1712 valid questionnaires of residents and 3051 valid questionnaires of tourists were obtained to study the influence of public household income on WTP.The results show that:(1)The three regression models all show that public household income has a significant positive impact on the WTP of the three representative Marine tourism resources' non-use value assessment;(2)The results of quantile regression show that income has a significant positive impact on WTP at all quantiles,and the regression coefficient of income variables at high quantiles is greater,indicating that income has a greater influence on high WTP groups.In the future,as the level of public household income rises,the gap in willingness to pay between high-WTP groups and low-WTP groups may increase.At the same time,income at 90% high quantiles has a significant positive impact on WTP,indicating that high-income groups are the main target groups for marine tourism resource protection policy formulation;(3)The Box-Cox model shows that the income elasticity of WTP is not constant,and it rises with the income level of the public household.The income elasticity of WTP for residents and tourists of beaches and coral reef tourism resources and residents of marine cultural tourism resources varies widely,while the income elasticity of WTP of tourists for marine cultural tourism resources is relatively constant.The range of the income elasticity of residents' WTP for beaches and coral reefs in Sanya and nearby islands is 0.40?1.70 and0.55?1.62,respectively;The range of the income elasticity of tourists' WTP is 0.53?1.14 and 0.55?1.29,respectively;The range of the income elasticity of residents' WTP for beaches and maritime culture in the Zhoushan Archipelago is 0.56?1.28 and 0.56?1.10,respectively;The range of the income elasticity of tourists' WTP is 0.75?1.20 and0.70?0.80,respectively.This article reveals the impact of China's public household income on WTP,and provides a reference for judging the trend of WTP changes caused by changes in public household income.