Determinants of Residential Water Consumption: Evidence and Analysis from a Ten-country Household Survey

R. Quentin Grafton, Michael Ward, Hang To and Tom Kompas

Crawford School Research Papers from Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University

Abstract: [1] Household survey data for ten countries are used to quantify and test the importance of price and non-price factors on residential water demand and investigate complementarities between household water-saving behaviors and the average volumetric price of water. Results show: (1) the average volumetric price of water is an important predictor of differences in residential consumption in models that include household characteristics, water-saving devices, attitudinal characteristics and environmental concerns as explanatory variables; (2) of all water-saving devices, only a low volume/dual-flush toilet has a statistically significant and negative effect on water consumption; and(3) environmental concerns have a statistically significant effect on some self-reported water-saving behaviors. While price-based approaches are espoused to promote economic efficiency, our findings stress that volumetric water pricing is also one of the most effective policy levers available to regulate household water consumption.

Keywords: causality; energy; economic growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2011-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (43)

Published in WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH, VOL. 47, W08537, 14 PP., 2011 doi:10.1029/2010WR009685

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.crawford.anu.edu.au/pdf/crwf_ssrn/crwfrp_1114.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Residential Water Consumption: A Cross Country Analysis (2009)
Working Paper: Residential Water Consumption: A Cross Country Analysis (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:een:crwfrp:1114

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