Economic policy instruments and sustainable water use

The aim of this paper is to review the insights on the desirability and possibilities for using economic policy instruments to reach sustainable use of water. Special attention will be paid to the scope for price instruments and privatisation and liberalisation of the sector as these feature prominently in the current policy debate. For this aim, we will provide a stylized description of the water for market devoting attention to both the relevant characteristics of demand and supply, including market failures that require government intervention to regulate the market.Next, attention is shifted to the possibilities of influencing supply and demand such that the market for water satisfies basic sustainability criteria.

Price and Income Elasticities of Residential Water Demand: Why Empirical Estimates differ

This paper presents a meta-analysis of variations in price and income elasticities of residential water demand.Information on the determinants of consumer demand is of pivotal importance for the efficiency and efficacy ofpublic and private policy-making. It is also crucial for effective water demand management. We focus on theapplication of statistical methods to synthesize research results on price and income elasticities of residentialwater demand report in the literature. These techniques are generally referred to as meta-analysis. This type ofanalysis constitutes an adequate tool for explaining why empirical estimates of the price and income elasticity ofresidential water demand vary to such considerable extents. The set of explanatory factors used in themeta-analysis includes variables derived from microeconomic choice theory and moderator variables reflectingdifferences in spatial and temporal dynamics, research design, and statistical quality of the estimates ofpreviously published studies.water demand; price elasticity; income elasticity; meta-analysis

Price and Income Elasticities of Residential Water Demand: A Meta-Analysis

This article presents a meta-analysis of variations in price and income elasticities of residential water demand. Meta-analysis constitutes an adequate tool to synthesize research results by means of an analysis of the variation in empirical estimates reported in the literature. We link the variation in estimated elasticities to differences in theoretical microeconomic choice approaches, differences in spatial and temporal dynamics, as well as differences in research design of the underlying studies. The occurrence of increasing or decreasing block rate systems turns out to be important. With respect to price elasticities, the use of the discrete-continuous choice approach is relevant in explaining observed differences.