IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/lus/zwipol/v70y2021i3p230-254n1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Wasserverbrauch privater Haushalte in Deutschland: Eine empirische Mikroanalyse

Author

Listed:
  • Frondel Manuel

    (Leibniz-Institut für WirtschaftsforschungHohenzollernstr. 1–3, 45128EssenDeutschland)

  • Niehues Delia A.

    (Leibniz-Institut für WirtschaftsforschungHohenzollernstr. 1–3, 45128EssenDeutschland)

  • Sommer Stephan

    (Hochschule Bochum und RWI – Leibniz-Institut für WirtschaftsforschungHohenzollernstr. 1–3, 45128EssenDeutschland)

Abstract

Germany is a rather water-rich country. Nevertheless, climatic changes might make it necessary to use water resources carefully in the future, especially in times of drought. Against this background, this paper estimates the price elasticity of household water consumption, differentiating between households that have a rough knowledge of water prices and households that do not. Based on about 1,100 observations for households living in single-family houses and using the sum of cubic meter prices for water and wastewater as price measure, we find a moderate but statistically significantly non-zero price elasticity of -0.102. Households that have knowledge of water prices tend to exhibit a higher elasticity, while households without price knowledge do not show a statistically significant response in their water consumption. Prices can thus only be used to a limited extent as a means of controlling water consumption.

Suggested Citation

  • Frondel Manuel & Niehues Delia A. & Sommer Stephan, 2021. "Wasserverbrauch privater Haushalte in Deutschland: Eine empirische Mikroanalyse," Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 70(3), pages 230-254, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:lus:zwipol:v:70:y:2021:i:3:p:230-254:n:1
    DOI: 10.1515/zfwp-2021-2061
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/zfwp-2021-2061
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/zfwp-2021-2061?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. Joachim Schleich & Thomas Hillenbrand, 2019. "Residential water demand responds asymmetrically to rising and falling prices," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(45), pages 4973-4981, September.
    2. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2017. "Undergraduate Econometrics Instruction: Through Our Classes, Darkly," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 125-144, Spring.
    3. Espey, James A. & Espey, Molly, 2004. "Turning on the Lights: A Meta-Analysis of Residential Electricity Demand Elasticities," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 36(1), pages 1-17, April.
    4. 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.
    5. Schleich, Joachim & Hillenbrand, Thomas, 2019. "Water demand responds asymmetrically to rising and falling prices," Working Papers "Sustainability and Innovation" S03/2019, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI).
    6. Brent, Daniel A. & Ward, Michael B., 2019. "Price perceptions in water demand," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    7. S. Gaudin, 2006. "Effect of price information on residential water demand," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(4), pages 383-393.
    8. Schleich, Joachim & Hillenbrand, Thomas, 2009. "Determinants of residential water demand in Germany," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1756-1769, April.
    9. 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.
    10. Tomas Havranek & Zuzana Irsova & Tomas Vlach, 2018. "Measuring the Income Elasticity of Water Demand: The Importance of Publication and Endogeneity Biases," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 94(2), pages 259-283.
    11. Hunt Allcott & Todd Rogers, 2014. "The Short-Run and Long-Run Effects of Behavioral Interventions: Experimental Evidence from Energy Conservation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(10), pages 3003-3037, October.
    12. Paul J. Ferraro & Michael K. Price, 2013. "Using Nonpecuniary Strategies to Influence Behavior: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(1), pages 64-73, March.
    13. Koichiro Ito, 2014. "Do Consumers Respond to Marginal or Average Price? Evidence from Nonlinear Electricity Pricing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(2), pages 537-563, February.
    14. Olmstead, Sheila M. & Michael Hanemann, W. & Stavins, Robert N., 2007. "Water demand under alternative price structures," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 181-198, September.
    15. David W. Carter & J. Walter Milon, 2005. "Price Knowledge in Household Demand for Utility Services," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 81(2).
    16. Manuel Frondel and Gerhard Kussel, 2019. "Switching on Electricity Demand Response: Evidence for German Households," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 5).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. María Ángeles García-Valiñas & Sara Suárez-Fernández, 2022. "Are Economic Tools Useful to Manage Residential Water Demand? A Review of Old Issues and Emerging Topics," Post-Print hal-04067487, HAL.
    2. Joachim Schleich & Thomas Hillenbrand, 2019. "Residential water demand responds asymmetrically to rising and falling prices," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(45), pages 4973-4981, September.
    3. Milan Ščasný & Šarlota Smutná, 2021. "Estimation of price and income elasticity of residential water demand in the Czech Republic over three decades," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 580-608, June.
    4. Liang Lu & David Deller & Morten Hviid, 2019. "Price and Behavioural Signals to Encourage Household Water Conservation: Implications for the UK," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 33(2), pages 475-491, January.
    5. Lin, Boqiang & Zhu, Penghu, 2021. "Has increasing block pricing policy been perceived in China? Evidence from residential electricity use," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    6. Mónica Maldonado-Devis & Vicent Almenar-Llongo, 2021. "A Panel Data Estimation of Domestic Water Demand with IRT Tariff Structure: The Case of the City of Valencia (Spain)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-26, January.
    7. Schleich, Joachim & Hillenbrand, Thomas, 2019. "Water demand responds asymmetrically to rising and falling prices," Working Papers "Sustainability and Innovation" S03/2019, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI).
    8. Frondel, Manuel & Niehues, Delia A. & Sommer, Stephan, 2021. "Wasserverbrauch privater Haushalte in Deutschland: Eine empirische Mikroanalyse," RWI Materialien 146, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung.
    9. Liang Lu & David Deller & Morten Hviid, 2018. "Price and Behavioural Signals to Encourage Household Water Conservation in Temperate Climates," Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Competition Policy (CCP) 2018-01, Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    10. Xiaojia Bao, 2016. "Water, Electricity and Weather Variability in Rural Northern China," Working Papers 2014-07-02, Wang Yanan Institute for Studies in Economics (WISE), Xiamen University.
    11. 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).
    12. R. Quentin Grafton & Tom Kompas & Hang To & Michael Ward, 2009. "Residential Water Consumption: A Cross Country Analysis," Environmental Economics Research Hub Research Reports 0923, Environmental Economics Research Hub, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University, revised Aug 2009.
    13. Tomas Havranek & Zuzana Irsova & Tomas Vlach, 2018. "Measuring the Income Elasticity of Water Demand: The Importance of Publication and Endogeneity Biases," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 94(2), pages 259-283.
    14. Steven Andrew Fenrick & Lullit Getachew, 2012. "Estimation of the effects of price and billing frequency on household water demand using a panel of Wisconsin municipalities," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(14), pages 1373-1380, September.
    15. Marie-Estelle Binet & Fabrizio Carlevaro & Michel Paul, 2014. "Estimation of Residential Water Demand with Imperfect Price Perception," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 59(4), pages 561-581, December.
    16. Michael O'Donnell & Robert P. Berrens, 2018. "Understanding Falling Municipal Water Demand in a Small City Dependent on the Declining Ogallala Aquifer: Case Study of Clovis, New Mexico," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 4(04), pages 1-40, October.
    17. Ramón Barberán & Julio López-Laborda & Fernando Rodrigo, 2022. "The Perception of Residential Water Tariff, Consumption, and Cost: Evidence of its Determinants Using Survey Data," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 36(9), pages 2933-2952, July.
    18. M. Allaire & A. Dinar, 2022. "What Drives Water Utility Selection of Pricing Methods? Evidence from California," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 36(1), pages 153-169, January.
    19. Daniel A. Brent & Lata Gangadharan & Anca Mihut & Marie Claire Villeval, 2019. "Taxation, redistribution, and observability in social dilemmas," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 21(5), pages 826-846, October.
    20. Wichman, Casey J. & Taylor, Laura O. & von Haefen, Roger H., 2016. "Conservation policies: Who responds to price and who responds to prescription?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 114-134.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • Q21 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q25 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Water

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:lus:zwipol:v:70:y:2021:i:3:p:230-254:n:1. 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: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.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.