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The welfare costs of urban outdoor water restrictions

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  • Brennan, Donna C.
  • Tapsuwan, Sorada
  • Ingram, Gordon

Abstract

Outdoor water restrictions are usually implemented as bans on a particular type of watering technology (sprinklers), which allow households to substitute for labour-intensive (hand-held) watering. This paper presents a household production model approach to analysing the impact of sprinkler restrictions on consumer welfare and their efficacy as a demand management tool. Central to our empirical analysis is an experimentally derived production function which describes the relationship between irrigation and lawn quality. We demonstrate that for a typical consumer complete sprinkler bans may be little more effective than milder restrictions policies, but are substantially more costly to the household.

Suggested Citation

  • Brennan, Donna C. & Tapsuwan, Sorada & Ingram, Gordon, 2007. "The welfare costs of urban outdoor water restrictions," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 51(3), pages 1-19.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aareaj:118331
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.118331
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    Cited by:

    1. Olmstead, Sheila M. & Stavins, Robert N., 2008. "Comparing Price and Non-price Approaches to Urban Water Conservation," RFF Working Paper Series dp-08-22, Resources for the Future.
    2. Klaus Moeltner & A. Ford Ramsey & Clinton L. Neill, 2021. "Bayesian Kinked Regression with Unobserved Thresholds: An Application to the von Liebig Hypothesis," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(5), pages 1832-1856, October.
    3. Bethany Cooper & Michael Burton & Lin Crase, 2019. "Willingness to Pay to Avoid Water Restrictions in Australia Under a Changing Climate," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 72(3), pages 823-847, March.
    4. David A. Fleming‐Muñoz & Stuart Whitten & Graham D. Bonnett, 2023. "The economics of drought: A review of impacts and costs," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 67(4), pages 501-523, October.
    5. Cooper, Bethany & Crase, Lin & Burton, Michael P., 2010. "Urban Water Restrictions: Attitudes and Avoidance," 2010 Conference (54th), February 10-12, 2010, Adelaide, Australia 58892, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    6. Clevo Wilson & Wasantha Athukorala & Benno Torgler & Robert Gifford & Maria A. Garcia-Valiñas & Shunsuke Managi, 2021. "Willingness to pay to ensure a continuous water supply with minimum restrictions," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 1519-1537, September.
    7. Janine Stone & Christopher Goemans & Marco Costanigro, 2019. "Variation in Water Demand Responsiveness to Utility Policies and Weather: A Latent-Class Model," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 6(01), pages 1-33, September.
    8. Hanna Hayden & Tsvetan Tsvetanov, 2019. "The Effectiveness of Urban Irrigation Day Restrictions in California," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(03), pages 1-29, July.
    9. Bethany Cooper, 2017. "What drives compliance? An application of the theory of planned behaviour to urban water restrictions using structural equation modelling," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(14), pages 1426-1439, March.

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