IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/enreec/v55y2013i3p419-445.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Welfare Impact of Self-supplied Water Pricing in Canada: A Computable General Equilibrium Assessment

Author

Listed:
  • Nicholas Rivers
  • Steven Groves

Abstract

This paper uses a computable general equilibrium model to assess the welfare cost of changing the method of water allocation in Canada towards one that uses prices to ration demand. We model the introduction of a price on both water that is abstracted as well as water that is consumed (that is abstracted, and not returned to the source). We estimate that reducing water consumption by 25 % would require imposition of a price on water consumption of around $$\$0.21/\text{ m }^{3}$$ . Similarly, introduction of a water abstraction charge of about $$\$0.013/\text{ m }^{3}$$ would be sufficient to reduce water abstraction by 25 %. We find that if revenues from water pricing are returned in lump sum to households, the introduction of water pricing would result in a modest welfare loss. When revenues from water pricing are used to offset existing taxes, we find a gain in welfare corresponding to a ‘strong double dividend.’ Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Nicholas Rivers & Steven Groves, 2013. "The Welfare Impact of Self-supplied Water Pricing in Canada: A Computable General Equilibrium Assessment," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 55(3), pages 419-445, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:55:y:2013:i:3:p:419-445
    DOI: 10.1007/s10640-013-9633-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10640-013-9633-3
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10640-013-9633-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ziv Bar-Shira & Israel Finkelshtain & Avi Simhon, 2006. "Block-Rate versus Uniform Water Pricing in Agriculture: An Empirical Analysis," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 88(4), pages 986-999.
    2. Feeley, Thomas J. & Skone, Timothy J. & Stiegel, Gary J. & McNemar, Andrea & Nemeth, Michael & Schimmoller, Brian & Murphy, James T. & Manfredo, Lynn, 2008. "Water: A critical resource in the thermoelectric power industry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 1-11.
    3. Steven Renzetti, 1992. "Estimating the Structure of Industrial Water Demands: The Case of Canadian Manufacturing," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 68(4), pages 396-404.
    4. Alvaro Calzadilla & Katrin Rehdanz & Richard S.J. Tol, 2008. "The Eonomic Impact Of More Sustainable Water Use In Agriculture: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis," Working Papers FNU-169, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, revised Dec 2008.
    5. Anthony Letsoalo & James Blignaut & Theuns de Wet & Martin de Wit & Sebastiaan Hess & Richard S.J. Tol & Jan van Heerden, 2005. "Triple Dividends Of Water Consumption Charges In South Africa," Working Papers FNU-62, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, revised Apr 2005.
    6. Steven Renzetti, 1999. "Municipal Water Supply and Sewage Treatment: Costs, Prices and Distortions," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 32(3), pages 688-704, May.
    7. Lawrence Goulder, 1995. "Environmental taxation and the double dividend: A reader's guide," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 2(2), pages 157-183, August.
    8. Diane Dupont & Steven Renzetti, 1998. "Water Use in the Canadian Food Processing Industry," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 46(1), pages 83-92, March.
    9. Diane Dupont & Steven Renzetti, 2001. "The Role of Water in Manufacturing," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 18(4), pages 411-432, April.
    10. A. Bovenberg, 1999. "Green Tax Reforms and the Double Dividend: an Updated Reader's Guide," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 6(3), pages 421-443, August.
    11. Steven Renzetti & Diane Dupont, 1999. "An Assessment of the Impact of Charging for Provincial Water Use Permits," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 25(3), pages 361-378, September.
    12. Wing, Ian Sue, 2006. "The synthesis of bottom-up and top-down approaches to climate policy modeling: Electric power technologies and the cost of limiting US CO2 emissions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(18), pages 3847-3869, December.
    13. Frederick G. Babin & Cleve E. Willis & P. Geoffrey Allen, 1982. "Estimation of Substitution Possibilities between Water and Other Production Inputs," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 64(1), pages 148-151.
    14. Maria Berrittella & Katrin Rehdanz & Arjen Y. Hoekstra & Roberto Roson & Richard S.J. Tol, 2006. "The Economic Impact Of Restricted Water Supply: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis," Working Papers FNU-93, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, revised Jul 2006.
    15. Perroni, Carlo & Rutherford, Thomas F., 1995. "Regular flexibility of nested CES functions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 335-343, February.
    16. Steven Renzetti, 2009. "Wave of the Future: The Case for Smarter Water," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 281, February.
    17. Berbel, J. & Calatrava, J. & Garrido. A., 2007. "Water pricing and irrigation: a review of the European experience," IWMI Books, Reports H040611, International Water Management Institute.
    18. Bohringer, Christoph & Rutherford, Thomas F., 2008. "Combining bottom-up and top-down," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 574-596, March.
    19. Bohringer, Christoph, 1998. "The synthesis of bottom-up and top-down in energy policy modeling," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 233-248, June.
    20. Lanz, Bruno & Rausch, Sebastian, 2011. "General equilibrium, electricity generation technologies and the cost of carbon abatement: A structural sensitivity analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 1035-1047, September.
    21. Sue Wing, Ian, 2008. "The synthesis of bottom-up and top-down approaches to climate policy modeling: Electric power technology detail in a social accounting framework," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 547-573, March.
    22. van Heerden, Jan H. & Blignaut, James & Horridge, Mark, 2008. "Integrated water and economic modelling of the impacts of water market instruments on the South African economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 105-116, May.
    23. Robinson, Sherman & Gehlhar, Clemen G., 1995. "Land, water, and agriculture in Egypt: the economywide impact of policy reform," TMD discussion papers 1, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    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


    Cited by:

    1. Carlos Gómez & C. Pérez-Blanco, 2014. "Simple Myths and Basic Maths About Greening Irrigation," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(12), pages 4035-4044, September.
    2. Luckmann, Jonas & Grethe, Harald & McDonald, Scott & Orlov, Anton & Siddig, Khalid, 2013. "A general equilibrium approach to modelling multiple types and uses of water," Conference papers 332401, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    3. Luckmann, Jonas & Ihle, Rico & Kleinwechter, Ulrich & Grethe, Harald, 2015. "The Effects of Vietnamese Export Policies on the World Market Integration of Domestic Rice Markets," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212159, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Zhang, Lirong & Li, Yakun & Jia, Zhijie, 2018. "Impact of carbon allowance allocation on power industry in China’s carbon trading market: Computable general equilibrium based analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 814-827.
    5. Luckmann, Jonas & Grethe, Harald & McDonald, Scott, 2015. "When Water Saving Limits Recycling: Modeling Economy-wide Linkages of Wastewater Use," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212161, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. Luckmann, Jonas & Grethe, Harald & McDonald, Scott, 2015. "When Water Saving Limits Recycling: Modeling Cascading Water Use in a Computable General Equilibrium Framework," Conference papers 332622, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    7. Teotónio, Carla & Rodríguez, Miguel & Roebeling, Peter & Fortes, Patrícia, 2020. "Water competition through the ‘water-energy’ nexus: Assessing the economic impacts of climate change in a Mediterranean context," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jason F. L. Koopman & Onno Kuik & Richard S. J. Tol & Roy Brouwer, 2017. "The potential of water markets to allocate water between industry, agriculture, and public water utilities as an adaptation mechanism to climate change," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 325-347, February.
    2. Chokri Thabet, 2014. "Water Policy and Poverty Reduction in Rural Area: A Comparative Economy Wide Analysis for Morocco and Tunisia," Working Papers 860, Economic Research Forum, revised Nov 2014.
    3. Fortes, Patrícia & Pereira, Rui & Pereira, Alfredo & Seixas, Júlia, 2014. "Integrated technological-economic modeling platform for energy and climate policy analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 716-730.
    4. Joel Bruneau & Steven Renzetti & Michel Villeneuve, 2010. "Manufacturing Firms’ Demand for Water Recirculation," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 58(4), pages 515-530, December.
    5. Anne-Kathrin Faust & Camille Gonseth & Marc Vielle, 2012. "The economic impact of climate driven changes in water availability in Switzerland," EcoMod2012 4177, EcoMod.
    6. Sebastian Rausch and Valerie J. Karplus, 2014. "Markets versus Regulation: The Efficiency and Distributional Impacts of U.S. Climate Policy Proposals," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Special I).
    7. Vallés-Giménez, Jaime & Zárate-Marco , Anabel, 2013. "Environmental taxation and industrial water use in Spain," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 25, pages 133-162.
    8. Lanz, Bruno & Rausch, Sebastian, 2011. "General equilibrium, electricity generation technologies and the cost of carbon abatement: A structural sensitivity analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 1035-1047, September.
    9. Nicholas Kilimani, 2014. "Water Taxation and the Double Dividend Hypothesis," Working Papers 201451, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    10. Helgesen, Per Ivar & Tomasgard, Asgeir, 2018. "From linking to integration of energy system models and computational general equilibrium models – Effects on equilibria and convergence," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 1218-1233.
    11. Cai, Yiyong & Newth, David & Finnigan, John & Gunasekera, Don, 2015. "A hybrid energy-economy model for global integrated assessment of climate change, carbon mitigation and energy transformation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 381-395.
    12. Dinar, Ariel, 2012. "Economy-wide implications of direct and indirect policy interventions in the water sector: lessons from recent work and future research needs," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6068, The World Bank.
    13. Dai, Hancheng & Mischke, Peggy & Xie, Xuxuan & Xie, Yang & Masui, Toshihiko, 2016. "Closing the gap? Top-down versus bottom-up projections of China’s regional energy use and CO2 emissions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 1355-1373.
    14. Randy A. Becker, 2016. "Water Use and Conservation in Manufacturing: Evidence from U.S. Microdata," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 30(12), pages 4185-4200, September.
    15. William Wills & Emilio Lebre La Rovere & Carolina Grottera & Giovanna Ferrazzo Naspolini & Gaëlle Le Treut & F. Ghersi & Julien Lefèvre & Carolina Burle Schmidt Dubeux, 2022. "Economic and social effectiveness of carbon pricing schemes to meet Brazilian NDC targets," Post-Print hal-03500923, HAL.
    16. Jos順鲥s & Arnaud Reynaud & Alban Thomas, 2012. "Water reuse in Brazilian manufacturing firms," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(11), pages 1417-1427, April.
    17. Willenbockel, Dirk, 2017. "Macroeconomic Effects of a Low-Carbon Electricity Transition in Kenya and Ghana: An Exploratory Dynamic General Equilibrium Analysis," MPRA Paper 78070, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Strzepek, Kenneth M. & Juana, James S. & Kirsten, Johann F., 2006. "Marginal Productivity Analysis of Global Inter-sectoral Water Demand," 2006 Annual Meeting, August 12-18, 2006, Queensland, Australia 25748, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Stefan Nabernegg & Birgit Bednar-Friedl & Fabian Wagner & Thomas Schinko & Janusz Cofala & Yadira Mori Clement, 2017. "The Deployment of Low Carbon Technologies in Energy Intensive Industries: A Macroeconomic Analysis for Europe, China and India," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-26, March.
    20. Alvaro Calzadilla & Katrin Rehdanz & Richard S.J. Tol, 2008. "The Eonomic Impact Of More Sustainable Water Use In Agriculture: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis," Working Papers FNU-169, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, revised Dec 2008.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:55:y:2013:i:3:p:419-445. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.