The demand for tap water quality: Survey evidence on water hardness and aesthetic quality

Bruno Lanz and Allan Provins ()

No 23-2014, CIES Research Paper series from Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute

Abstract: We carry out a survey to provide quantitative evidence about households' demand for qualitative aspects of tap water supply. We focus on two characteristics that are of importance for households: water hardness and aesthetic quality in terms of taste, smell and appearance. Our survey administration targets a representative sample of the population in England and Wales, and aims to elicit expenditures on products that improve the overall experience with these aspects of water quality. For water hardness, we find that around 14% of households employ at least one water softener device or purchase products such as softening tablets or descaling agents. For aesthetic quality of tap water, around 39% of households report some averting behaviour, the most common being the use of filtering devices, purchase of bottled water, or addition of squash or cordial. To study how expenditures on these products vary with the level of service quality, we match household data to highly disaggregated records on regional water hardness (in mg CaCO3/l) and aesthetic quality, as measured by the regional rate of complaints. Our econometric analysis suggests that households' decision to incur averting expenditures varies with service quality in a statistically and economically significant manner, providing novel evidence that utility customers actively respond to non-health related utility service provision.

Keywords: Water demand; Water quality; Water hardness; Revealed preferences; Averting behaviour; Cost-benefit analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C83 D13 L95 Q25 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2014-01-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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http://repec.graduateinstitute.ch/pdfs/ciesrp/CIES_RP_23.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The demand for tap water quality: Survey evidence on water hardness and aesthetic quality (2016)
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