Self-selection bias and manufacturing firms' demand for water recirculation

Relatively little is known of the factors which might influence firms' water recirculation decisions. This paper estimates an econometric model that accounts for potential self-selection bias and considers two facets of firms' recirculation behaviour: first, the discrete decision of whether to recirculate and, second, the decision of how much to recirculate. The model is estimated by applying the Heckman two-stage estimation procedure to data from Environment Canada's Industrial Water Use Survey. In the first stage, long run factors such as relative water scarcity and production technologies are found to influence the decision whether to recirculate water. In the second stage, the imputed prices of intake water and water recirculation as well as the scale of operations are found to influence the choice of the optimal quantity of water to recirculate.