Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Estimation of Water Demand in Developing Countries: An Overview

Contents:

Author Info

  • Céline Nauges
  • Dale Whittington

Abstract

A better understanding of household water use in developing countries is necessary to manage and expand water systems more effectively. Several meta-analyzes have examined the determinants of household water demand in industrialized countries, but little effort has been made to synthesize the growing body of literature evaluating household water demand in developing countries. This article reviews what is known and what is missing from that literature thus far. Analysis of demand for water in developing countries is complicated by abundant evidence that, contrary to what is observed in most developed countries, households in developing countries have access to, and may use more than one of several types of, water sources. The authors describe the different modeling strategies that researchers have adopted to estimate water demand in developing countries and discuss issues related to data collection. The findings from the literature on the main determinants of water demand in these countries suggest that, despite heterogeneity in the places and time periods studied, most estimates of own-price elasticity of water from private connections are in the range from - 0.3 to - 0.6, close to what is usually reported for industrialized countries. The empirical findings on decisions relating to household water sources are much less robust and should be a high priority for future research. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/wbro/lkp016
Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.

Bibliographic Info

Article provided by World Bank Group in its journal The World Bank Research Observer.

Volume (Year): 25 (2010)
Issue (Month): 2 (August)
Pages: 263-294

as in new window
Handle: RePEc:oup:wbrobs:v:25:y:2010:i:2:p:263-294

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK
Phone: (202) 477-1234
Fax: 01865 267 985
Email:
Web page: http://wbro.oxfordjournals.org/
More information through EDIRC

Order Information:
Web: http://www.oup.co.uk/journals

Related research

Keywords:

Other versions of this item:

References

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
as in new window
  1. John C. Whitehead, 2005. "Improving Willingness to Pay Estimates for Quality Improvements Throught Joint Estimation with Quality Perceptions," NCEE Working Paper Series 200508, National Center for Environmental Economics, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, revised Aug 2005.
  2. Bhat, Chandra R., 2005. "A multiple discrete-continuous extreme value model: formulation and application to discretionary time-use decisions," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 39(8), pages 679-707, September.
  3. J. Scott Shonkwiler & Steven T. Yen, 1999. "Two-Step Estimation of a Censored System of Equations," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 81(4), pages 972-982.
  4. Filmer, Deon & Pritchett, Lant, 1998. "Estimating wealth effects without expenditure data - or tears : with an application to educational enrollments in states of India," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1994, The World Bank.
  5. Jasper M. Dalhuisen & Raymond J. G. M. Florax & JHenri L. F. de Groot & Peter Nijkamp, 2003. "Price and Income Elasticities of Residential Water Demand: A Meta-Analysis," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 79(2), pages 292-308.
  6. Whittington, Dale, et al, 1990. "Estimating the Willingness to Pay for Water Services in Developing Countries: A Case Study of the Use of Contingent Valuation Surveys in Southern Haiti," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 38(2), pages 293-311, January.
  7. Strand, Jon & Walker, Ian, 2005. "Water markets and demand in Central American cities," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(03), pages 313-335, June.
  8. Lee, Lung-Fei, 1983. "Generalized Econometric Models with Selectivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(2), pages 507-12, March.
  9. Shin, Jeong-Shik, 1985. "Perception of Price When Price Information Is Costly: Evidence from Residential Electricity Demand," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(4), pages 591-98, November.
  10. Céline Nauges & Alban Thomas, 2000. "Privately Operated Water Utilities, Municipal Price Negotiation, and Estimation of Residential Water Demand: The Case of France," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 76(1), pages 68-85.
  11. Nauges, Celine & Strand, Jon, 2007. "Estimation of non-tap water demand in Central American cities," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 165-182, September.
  12. Whittington, Dale & Hanemann, W. Michael, 2006. "The economic costs and benefits of investments in municipal water and sanitation infrastructure: a global perspective," CUDARE Working Paper Series 1027, University of California at Berkeley, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Policy.
  13. Céline Nauges & Caroline Berg, 2009. "Demand for Piped and Non-piped Water Supply Services: Evidence from Southwest Sri Lanka," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 42(4), pages 535-549, April.
  14. R. Martinez-Espiñeira, 2002. "Residential Water Demand in the Northwest of Spain," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 21(2), pages 161-187, February.
  15. Arbues, Fernando & Garcia-Valinas, Maria Angeles & Martinez-Espineira, Roberto, 2003. "Estimation of residential water demand: a state-of-the-art review," The Journal of Socio-Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 81-102, March.
  16. Renwick, Mary E. & Green, Richard D., 2000. "Do Residential Water Demand Side Management Policies Measure Up? An Analysis of Eight California Water Agencies," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 37-55, July.
  17. Sylvestre Gaudin & Ronald C. Griffin & Robin C. Sickles, 2001. "Demand Specification for Municipal Water Management: Evaluation of the Stone-Geary Form," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 77(3), pages 399-422.
  18. Ellen M. Pint, 1999. "Household Responses to Increased Water Rates during the California Drought," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 75(2), pages 246-266.
  19. Whittington, Dale & Mu, Xinming & Roche, Robert, 1990. "Calculating the value of time spent collecting water: Some estimates for Ukunda, Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 269-280, February.
  20. BRIAND Anne & NAUGES Céline & TRAVERS Muriel, 2008. "Choix d’approvisionnement en eau des ménages de Dakar : une étude économétrique à partir de données d’enquête," LERNA Working Papers 08.12.256, LERNA, University of Toulouse.
  21. Michael L. Nieswiadomy & David J. Molina, 1989. "Comparing Residential Water Demand Estimates under Decreasing and Increasing Block Rates Using Household Data," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 65(3), pages 280-289.
  22. Piet Rietveld & Jan Rouwendal & Bert Zwart, 2000. "Block Rate Pricing of Water in Indonesia: An Analysis of Welfare Effects," Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 36(3), pages 73-92.
  23. Gayatri Acharya & Edward Barbier, 2002. "Using Domestic Water Analysis to Value Groundwater Recharge in the Hadejia'Jama'are Floodplain, Northern Nigeria," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 84(2), pages 415-426.
  24. Sheila Olmstead & W. Michael Hanemann & Robert N. Stavins, 2007. "Water Demand Under Alternative Price Structures," NBER Working Papers 13573, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  25. Bruce Larson & Bart Minten & Ramy Razafindralambo, 2006. "Unravelling the linkages between the millennium development goals for poverty, education, access to water and household water use in developing countries: Evidence from Madagascar," The Journal of Development Studies, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 42(1), pages 22-40.
  26. Crane, Randall, 1994. "Water markets, market reform and the urban poor: Results from Jakarta, Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 71-83, January.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Citations

Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
as in new window

Cited by:
  1. Henrique Monteiro, 2010. "Residential Water Demand in Portugal: checking for efficiency-based justifications for increasing block tariffs," Working Papers Series 1 ercwp0110, ISCTE-IUL, Business Research Unit (BRU-IUL).
  2. Fernando Borraz & Nicolas Gonzalez Pampillon & Marcelo Olarreaga, 2011. "Water Nationalization: network access, quality, and health outcomes," Research Papers by the Department of Economics, University of Geneva 11051, Département des Sciences Économiques, Université de Genève.
  3. Worthington, Andrew C., 2010. "Commercial and Industrial Water Demand Estimation: Theoretical and Methodological Guidelines for Applied Economics Research/Estimación de la demanda de agua comercial e industrial: pautas teóricas y," Estudios de Economía Aplicada, Estudios de Economía Aplicada, vol. 28, pages 237-258, Agosto.

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:wbrobs:v:25:y:2010:i:2:p:263-294

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Oxford University Press) or (Christopher F. Baum).

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.