Economic Valuation of the Taj Mahal in India: The Contingent Valuation Method

Abstract

India has a lot of historical places. Among them one of the most precious is the Taj Mahal. Due to fewer threats to conservation, Taj is placed on the1996 watch list of the 100 most endangered sites by the World Monument Fund. In this study, an attempt was made to calculate the economic value of Taj Mahal in India in relation to the conservation issues. This study assesses households' WTP for Taj Mahal conservation through a CVM study. Single Bounded Dichotomous Choice with an open-ended format was used to elicit households’ willingness to pay from 200 households. Out of 200 sample respondents, 70.50 percent were found to be willing to pay the proposed bid prices for Taj Mahal conservation, whereas the remaining 29.50 percent rejected the proposed bid prices. Logit model was employed to assess the determinate of willingness to pay and probit model was also applied to estimate mean willingness to pay (WTP), and the study shows that the mean willingness to pay estimated from the Single Bounded Dichotomous Choice model was Rs. 109.92(US$1.50)per month per household. The results of the study have found the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics; awareness and attitude of the households are responsible for households WTP for Taj conservation. Therefore, policy and program intervention designed to address the issue of conserving the Taj Mahal in India needs to take into account these factors to make it more effective.