IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/huaedp/14982.html

Regulating Irrigation Via Block-Rate Pricing: An Econometric Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Bar-Shira, Ziv
  • Finkelshtain, Israel
  • Simhon, Avi

Abstract

In this paper, we adapt Burtless and Hausman's (1978) methodology in order to estimate farmer's demand for irrigation water under increasing block-rate tariffs and empirically assess its effect on aggregate demand and inter-farm allocation efficiency. This methodology overcomes the technical challenges raised by increasing block rate pricing and accounts for both observed and unobserved technological heterogeneity among farmers. Employing a micro panel data documenting irrigation levels and prices in 185 Israeli agricultural communities in the period 1992-1997 we estimate water demand elasticity at -0.3 in the short run (the effect of a price change on demand within a year of implementation) and -0.46 in the long run. We also find that, in accordance with common belief, switching from a single to a block price regime, yields a 7% reduction in average water use while maintaining the same average price. However, based on our simulations we estimate that the switch to block prices will result in a loss of approximately 1% of agricultural output due to inter-farm allocation inefficiencies.

Suggested Citation

  • Bar-Shira, Ziv & Finkelshtain, Israel & Simhon, Avi, 2005. "Regulating Irrigation Via Block-Rate Pricing: An Econometric Analysis," Discussion Papers 14982, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Agricultural Economics and Management.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:huaedp:14982
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.14982
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/14982/files/dp050003.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.14982?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arbues, Fernando & Garcia-Valinas, Maria Angeles & Martinez-Espineira, Roberto, 2003. "Estimation of residential water demand: a state-of-the-art review," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 81-102, March.
    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. E. Strazzera, 2006. "Application of the ML Hausman approach to the demand of water for residential use: heterogeneity vs two-error specification," Working Paper CRENoS 200604, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    2. Lin, Boqiang & Jiang, Zhujun, 2012. "Designation and influence of household increasing block electricity tariffs in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 164-173.
    3. Khanna, Nina Zheng & Guo, Jin & Zheng, Xinye, 2016. "Effects of demand side management on Chinese household electricity consumption: Empirical findings from Chinese household survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 113-125.

    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. Jean-Daniel Rinaudo, 2015. "Long-Term Water Demand Forecasting," Post-Print hal-01183853, HAL.
    2. Tchigriaeva, Elena & Lott, Corey & Kimberly, Rollins, 2014. "Modeling effects of multiple conservation policy instruments and exogenous factors on urban residential water demand through household heterogeneity," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170605, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Schleich, Joachim & Hillenbrand, Thomas, 2009. "Determinants of residential water demand in Germany," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1756-1769, April.
    4. Wang, Jingjing & Chermak, Janie M., 2021. "Is less always more? Conservation, efficiency and water education programs," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    5. Marie-Estelle Binet & Younes Ben Zaïd, 2011. "A Seasonal Integration and Cointegration Analysis of Residential Water Demand in Tunisia," Economics Working Paper Archive (University of Rennes & University of Caen) 201122, Center for Research in Economics and Management (CREM), University of Rennes, University of Caen and CNRS.
    6. Acuña, Guillermo, 2017. "Elasticidades de la demanda de agua en Chile [Elasticities of water demand in Chile]," MPRA Paper 82916, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Gregorio Castro-Rosales & Ramiro Esqueda-Walle, 2021. "Spatial Analysis of Urban Water Use Management in the Northern Border Region of Mexico," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 15(11), pages 126-126, July.
    8. Donna Brennan, 2008. "Will we all be Rooned without a Desal Plant? Hanrahan's Lament and the Problem of Urban Water Planning under Climate Change," Agenda - A Journal of Policy Analysis and Reform, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics, vol. 15(3), pages 5-20.
    9. 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.
    10. Xayavong, Vilaphonh & Burton, Michael P. & White, Benedict, 2007. "Estimating Urban Residential Water-Demand with Increasing Block Prices: The Case of Perth, Western Australia," Working Papers 7061, University of Western Australia, School of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    11. Ben Zaied Younes, 2013. "A long-run analysis of residential water consumption," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(1), pages 536-544.
    12. Lenka Slavíková & Vítězslav Malý & Michael Rost & Lubomír Petružela & Ondřej Vojáček, 2013. "Impacts of Climate Variables on Residential Water Consumption in the Czech Republic," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(2), pages 365-379, January.
    13. Woo, Chi-Keung & Wong, Wing-Keung & Horowitz, Ira & Chan, Hing-Lin, 2012. "Managing a scarce resource in a growing Asian economy: Water usage in Hong Kong," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 374-382.
    14. David W. Carter & J. Walter Milon, 2005. "Price Knowledge in Household Demand for Utility Services," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 81(2).
    15. Roberto Martínez-Espiñeira, 2007. "An estimation of residential water demand using co-integration and error correction tec hniques," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 10, pages 161-184, May.
    16. repec:ags:aare05:139341 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Katrin Millock & Céline Nauges, 2010. "Household Adoption of Water-Efficient Equipment: The Role of Socio-Economic Factors, Environmental Attitudes and Policy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 46(4), pages 539-565, August.
    18. Arturas Juodis & Sarafidis, V., 2015. "A Simple Estimator for Short Panels with Common Factors," UvA-Econometrics Working Papers 15-03, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Dept. of Econometrics.
    19. Marie-Estelle Binet & Fabrizio Carlevaro & Stéphanie Durand & Michel Paul, 2006. "Estimation de la demande d'eau potable à La Réunion sur données d'enquête," Post-Print halshs-00102137, HAL.
    20. NAUGES Céline & VAN DEN BERG Caroline, 2006. "Water Markets, Demand and Cost Recovery for Piped Water Supply Services: Evidence from Southwest Sri Lanka," LERNA Working Papers 06.08.201, LERNA, University of Toulouse.
    21. Cooper, Bethany & Crase, Lin, 2006. "Equity and Efficiency Tradeoffs in Water: Prospects for Choice Modelling," 2006 Conference (50th), February 8-10, 2006, Sydney, Australia 174097, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    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:ags:huaedp:14982. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/agrhuil.html .

    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.