Intention Versus Action: Household Adoption of Best Management Practices for Water Quality

Adoption rates of household water quality management practices remain extremely low, despite survey evidence indicating substantial willingness to adopt. Using a quasi-experimental survey design, we investigate the presence of hypothetical bias in household stormwater surveys and compare the effectiveness of two ex-ante bias mitigation techniques: survey consequentiality and a cheap talk script. Households facing survey consequentiality are willing to pay 38% less for stormwater practices compared with the control. This results in expected adoption rates that are up to 60% lower than those indicated by responses in the control group. In contrast the cheap talk script did not significantly alter willingness to pay for any management practice analyzed. After accounting for hypothetical bias, local policy goals for rain garden adoption imply a household subsidy program that consumes almost three times the budget of that implied by survey responses without a consequentiality reminder.