The willingness to pay for an early warning system for infectious diseases in six European countries

Early warning systems for infectious diseases and foodborne outbreaks are designed with
the aim to increase the safety of citizens. As a rst step to determine whether investing in
such a system is worth the cost, this study used contingent valuation to estimate people's
willingness to pay (WTP) for an early warning system. The contingent valuation experiment
was administered using online questionnaires in February to March 2018 to cross-sectional,
representative samples in the UK, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and the Netherlands
with a total sample size of 3,140. Mean WTP per month for an early warning system
was € 22.7 (median € 9.3) per household per month. Pooled regression results indicate
that overall, WTP valuations increased with household income and awareness of the risk of
outbreaks while WTP decreased with age and being female. The results suggest that there
is a quantifiable monetary value for safety in the context of an early warning system for
infectious diseases and food-borne outbreaks.