A Singaporean context: understanding the economic value of street harassment through the lens of university students

Abstract

Street harassment primarily affects women globally (Desborough and Weldes, 2023), undermining their sense of safety and freedom in public spaces. While extensive research has explored the psychological and social impacts of street harassment, few have tried to study it from an economic perspective. In this study, we conducted a survey using the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) with a double-bounded dichotomous choice format, asking university students their willingness to pay (WTP) for legislative protection against street harassment in Singapore. The survey also asked respondents for their attitudes towards, and knowledge on street harassment in Singapore; apart from perceptions of safety and frequency of street harassment in Singapore, where most respondents felt that street harassment was most likely to occur in the night. The mean WTP was estimated via parametric and non-parametric methods, which revealed to be $231.46 and $262.40 Singapore Dollars (SGD) respectively, demonstrating a significant demand for stronger legal frameworks to enhance public safety. A probit regression analysis was also conducted, where key determinants influencing WTP were income, race and attitude scores. Gender did not play a big role in the WTP value, despite previous literature suggesting that street harassment affects women disproportionately. The WTP of Chinese respondents was also relatively lower than non-Chinese by $199.50 to $228.30 on average. The regression analysis also suggests that certain attitude dimensions significantly impacted WTP more as compared to their knowledge scores, indicating that an individual's awareness about street harassment has little impact on their WTP. Ultimately, this study aims to find the economic value of street harassment for university students and intends to offer policymakers an economic perspective to improve legislative measures and promote public safety.