Key-drivers of EU budget allocation

We examine the determinants of the EU budget expenditures allocation among different countries. Following previous literature, we consider two alternative explanations for the EU budget distribution: political power vs. 'needs view'. Taking the original data set (1976-2001) from Kauppi and Widgren (2004) we analyze whether their predictions stay robust while applying a different measure of power. We find that the nucleolus is a good alternative to the Shapley-Shubik index in the distributive situations such as the EU budget allocation. Our results also show that the relative weight of political power when explaining budget shares is lower than previous models' predictions

Private Sector Involvement in Water Services: Theoretical Foundations and Empirical Evidence

Water services management has become a key issue as urban water supply is considered a service of general interest in the European Union (EU, 2001). In this context, public-private partnerships (PPP) have emerged as a usual way of local water services provision. This paper contributes to analyze the effects and consequences of PPP in the management of water resources. First of all, we develop a theoretical framework to show the effects of water services contracting-out on water prices. Second, we estimate the model using a sample of Spanish municipal water services recently privatized. Our findings support that, in a context of limited resources, local governments are using public-private partnerships in order to get additional fundings to reduce their indebt- ness levels. Moreover, the fact of setting a high reservation price as a way to guarantee a minimum amount of resources has had consequences in terms of water price increases after water services privatization

Participation in Environmental Organizations: An Empirical Analysis

The literature on volunteering has strongly increased over the last few years. However, there is still a lack of substantial empirical evidence on the determinants of environmental participation. This empirical study analyses a cross-section of individuals using micro-data from the World Values Survey wave III (1995-1997), which covers 38 countries, to investigate this question. The results suggest that individuals’ active participation in environmental organizations is influenced not only by socio-demographic and socio-economic factors, but also by political attitudes. Furthermore, we observe regional differences. Interestingly, environmental participation seems to be a more important channel for action in developing countries, where weak and dysfunctional states make people pursue their goals through non-governmental sector activities. We also find that a higher level of perceived corruption promotes participation in environmental organizations, which shows that individuals take action when they feel that the government is corrupt

Participation in Environmental Organizations: An Empirical Analysis

The literature on volunteering has strongly increased over the last few years. However, there is still a lack of substantial empirical evidence on the determinants of environmental participation. This empirical study analyses a cross-section of individuals using micro-data from the World Values Survey wave III (1995-1997), which covers 38 countries, to investigate this question. The results suggest that individuals’ active participation in environmental organizations is influenced not only by socio-demographic and socio-economic factors, but also by political attitudes. Furthermore, we observe regional differences. Interestingly, environmental participation seems to be a more important channel for action in developing countries, where weak and dysfunctional states make people pursue their goals through non-governmental sector activities. We also find that a higher level of perceived corruption promotes participation in environmental organizations, which shows that individuals take action when they feel that the government is corrupt

Water services quality in Tanzania: access and management

Problems related to water access and quality are significant in several countries around the world. Thus water management becomes a key issue, especially in developing countries, where the institutional and regulatory context is not always properly designed. The aim of this research is to analyze the residential water service in Tanzania, using data taken from several government reports and the survey “Views of the People 2007”. This survey includes information on perceived problems and improvements on water services, allowing identification of the key drivers of Tanzanian households' perceptions of water services. The best-performance framework is also identified, and some policy recommendations are provided

Water services quality in Tanzania: access and management

Problems related to water access and quality are significant in several countries around the world. Thus water management becomes a key issue, especially in developing countries, where the institutional and regulatory context is not always properly designed. The aim of this research is to analyze the residential water service in Tanzania, using data taken from several government reports and the survey “Views of the People 2007”. This survey includes information on perceived problems and improvements on water services, allowing identification of the key drivers of Tanzanian households' perceptions of water services. The best-performance framework is also identified, and some policy recommendations are provided

Key-drivers of EU budget allocation: Does power matter?

We examine the determinants of the EU budget expenditures allocation among different countries. Following previous literature, we consider two alternative explanations for the EU budget distribution: political power vs. 'needs view'. Taking the original data set (1976-2001) from Kauppi and Widgren (2004) we analyze whether their predictions stay robust while applying a different measure of power. We find that the nucleolus is a good alternative to the Shapley-Shubik index in the distributive situations such as the EU budget allocation. Our results also show that the relative weight of political power when explaining budget shares is lower than previous models' predictions

Households’ pro-environmental habits and investments in water and energy consumption: Determinants and relationships

Economic instruments have received a lot of attention in the literature dealing with water and energy demand management. However factors driving households’ behaviour/habits and investment in water-saving and energy-saving equipment have been seldom studied. The main purpose of this article is to contribute to this literature by analysing the main determinants of a set of households’ conservation habits and pro-environmental investment decisions. Using household-level data from Spain, we show that conservation habits and the purchase of resource-efficient appliances are not independent

Responses to changes in domestic water tariff structures: a latent class analysis on household-level data from Granada, Spain

A problem that affects the estimation of water demand functions is the presence of unobserved individual heterogeneity, which means that a common demand function is unlikely to represent the behavior of all users. We implement Latent Class Models to estimate water demand functions for four groups of users who are classified according to their unobservable preferences. This more flexible approach makes it possible to distinguish four different response patterns to changes in the drivers of water use, including different price elasticities. These results should be of particular interest to regulators who would like to tailor water demand management policy to heterogeneous users. Our analysis exploits household-level panel data on residential water demand and consumers’ characteristics obtained by combining information from a survey of 1,465 domestic users in the city of Granada and bimonthly price and consumption data supplied by this city’s water supplier from the period 2009–2011.L'estimation des fonctions de demande d'eau est affectée par la présence d'hétérogénéité individuelle non-observable, qui fait qu'une fonction de demande commune ne va pas représenter de manière fiable le comportement de tous les usagers. Les auteurs développent un modèle en classes latentes pour estimer les fonctions de demande d'eau de quatre groupes d'usagers classés en fonction de préférences non-observables. Cette approche plus flexible permet de distinguer quatre types de réponses aux changements dans les déterminants de l'usage de l'eau, y compris des élasticités-prix différentes. Ces résultats sont particulièrement utiles aux régulateurs qui souhaiteraient ajuster leurs politiques de gestion de la demande d'eau en présence d'usagers hétérogènes. Cette analyse exploite des données en panel au niveau des ménages sur la demande en eau et les caractéristiques des consommateurs en combinant une enquête de 1 465 foyers de la ville de Grenade ainsi que des données bimensuelles de prix et de consommation fournies par le fournisseur des eaux de la ville sur la période 2009-2011