IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/38444.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Household Demand and Welfare Implications of Water Pricing in Cyprus

Author

Listed:
  • Pashardes, Panos
  • Koundouri, Phoebe
  • Hajispyrou, Soteroula

Abstract

This paper considers a model of household demand for water in a theoretical framework consistent with funtamendal principles of comsumer behaviour. It applies this model to individual household data to estimate the price and income elasticities of residential demand for water in Cyprus and evaluate the welfare effects associated with changes in the water pricing system. We &nd that the current regionally heterogeneous increasing block pricing system in the island introduces gross price distortions that are not justi&ed either on efficiency or equity grounds. A shift towards uniform marginal cost pricing will eliminate the deadweight loss of the current system. However, its bene&ts will be distributed in favour of the better off households. Overall, price can be an effective tool for residential water demand management, however, it may also lead to socially undesirable distributional effects on households.

Suggested Citation

  • Pashardes, Panos & Koundouri, Phoebe & Hajispyrou, Soteroula, 2002. "Household Demand and Welfare Implications of Water Pricing in Cyprus," MPRA Paper 38444, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:38444
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/38444/1/MPRA_paper_38444.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. R. Bruce Billings, 1982. "Specification of Block Rate Price Variables in Demand Models," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 58(3), pages 386-394.
    2. Lars Gårn Hansen, 1996. "Water and Energy Price Impacts on Residential Water Demand in Copenhagen," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 72(1), pages 66-79.
    3. 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.
    4. Mary E. Renwick & Sandra O. Archibald, 1998. "Demand Side Management Policies for Residential Water Use: Who Bears the Conservation Burden?," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 74(3), pages 343-359.
    5. Graeme Dandy & Tin Nguyen & Carolyn Davies, 1997. "Estimating Residential Water Demand in the Presence of Free Allowances," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 73(1), pages 125-139.
    6. J. E. Schefter & E. L. David, 1985. "Estimating Residential Water Demand under Multi-Part Tariffs Using Aggregate Data," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 64(3), pages 272-280.
    7. MICHAEL Nieswiadomy & STEVEN L. Cobb, 1993. "Impact Of Pricing Structure Selectivity On Urban Water Demand," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 11(3), pages 101-113, July.
    8. R. Martinez-Espiñeira, 2002. "Residential Water Demand in the Northwest of Spain," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 21(2), pages 161-187, February.
    9. Henry S. Foster, Jr. & Bruce R. Beattie, 1979. "Urban Residential Demand for Water in the United States," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 55(1), pages 43-58.
    10. 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.
    11. Lewbel, Arthur, 1990. "Full Rank Demand Systems," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 31(2), pages 289-300, May.
    12. James Banks & Richard Blundell & Arthur Lewbel, 1997. "Quadratic Engel Curves And Consumer Demand," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 79(4), pages 527-539, November.
    13. Manuel Gottlieb, 1963. "Urban Domestic Demand for Water: A Kansas Case Study," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(2), pages 204-210.
    14. Blundell, Richard & Pashardes, Panos & Weber, Guglielmo, 1993. "What Do We Learn About Consumer Demand Patterns from Micro Data?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(3), pages 570-597, June.
    15. Lewbel, Arthur, 1991. "The Rank of Demand Systems: Theory and Nonparametric Estimation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(3), pages 711-730, May.
    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. 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. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Rita Martins & Adelino Fortunato, 2005. "Residential water demand under block rates: a Portuguese case study," GEMF Working Papers 2005-09, GEMF, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra.
    5. R. Martinez-Espiñeira, 2002. "Residential Water Demand in the Northwest of Spain," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 21(2), pages 161-187, February.
    6. Shyama Ratnasiri & Clevo Wilson & Wasantha Athukorala & Maria A. Garcia-Valiñas & Benno Torgler & Robert Gifford, 2018. "Effectiveness of two pricing structures on urban water use and conservation: a quasi-experimental investigation," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 20(3), pages 547-560, July.
    7. Andrew C. Worthington & Mark Hoffman, 2008. "An Empirical Survey Of Residential Water Demand Modelling," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 842-871, December.
    8. Céline Nauges & Dale Whittington, 2010. "Estimation of Water Demand in Developing Countries: An Overview," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 25(2), pages 263-294, August.
    9. Jasper M. Dalhuisen & Raymond J.G.M. Florax & Henri L.F.M. de Groot & Peter Nijkamp, 2001. "Price and Income Elasticities of Residential Water Demand: Why Empirical Estimates differ," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 01-057/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    10. Roberto Martínez-Espiñeira, 2007. "An Estimation of Residential Water Demand Using Co-Integration and Error Correction Techniques," Journal of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 161-184, May.
    11. 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 m," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 28, pages 237-258, Agosto.
    12. Céline Nauges & Arnaud Reynaud, 2001. "Estimation de la demande domestique d'eau potable en France," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 52(1), pages 167-185.
    13. Kostas Bithas & Chrysostomos Stoforos, 2006. "Estimating Urban Residential Water Demand Determinants and Forecasting Water Demand for Athens Metropolitan Area, 2000-2010," South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics, Association of Economic Universities of South and Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region, vol. 4(1), pages 47-59.
    14. 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.
    15. Tamkinat Rauf & M. Wasif Siddiqi, 2008. "Price-setting for Residential Water: Estimation of Water Demand in Lahore," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 47(4), pages 893-906.
    16. 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.
    17. Dinusha Dharmaratna & Edwyna Harris, 2012. "Estimating Residential Water Demand Using the Stone-Geary Functional Form: The Case of Sri Lanka," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 26(8), pages 2283-2299, June.
    18. Fernando Arbues & Inmaculada Villanua, 2006. "Potential for Pricing Policies in Water Resource Management: Estimation of Urban Residential Water Demand in Zaragoza, Spain," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(13), pages 2421-2442, December.
    19. Maria de los Angeles Garcia Valinas, 2006. "Analysing rationing policies: drought and its effects on urban users' welfare (Analysing rationing policies during drought)," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(8), pages 955-965.
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Residential water demand; increasing block pricing; consumer welfare; water management;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D6 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics
    • Q25 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Water
    • Q2 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation

    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:pra:mprapa:38444. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.