Demand for Piped and Non-piped Water Supply Services : Evidence from Southwest Sri Lanka
In many countries, water supply is a service that is seriously underpriced, especially for residential consumers. This has led to a call for setting cost recovery policies to ensure that the tariffs charged for water supply cover the full cost of service provision. Identification of factors driving...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | EN |
| Published: |
2012
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4804 |
| id |
okr-10986-4804 |
|---|---|
| recordtype |
oai_dc |
| spelling |
okr-10986-48042021-04-23T14:02:19Z Demand for Piped and Non-piped Water Supply Services : Evidence from Southwest Sri Lanka Nauges, Celine van den Berg, Caroline Gas Utilities Pipelines Water Utilities L950 Economic Development: Agriculture Natural Resources Energy Environment Other Primary Products O130 Economic Development: Regional, Urban, and Rural Analyses Transportation O180 Land Ownership and Tenure Land Reform Land Use Irrigation Agriculture and Environment Q150 Renewable Resources and Conservation: Water Q250 In many countries, water supply is a service that is seriously underpriced, especially for residential consumers. This has led to a call for setting cost recovery policies to ensure that the tariffs charged for water supply cover the full cost of service provision. Identification of factors driving piped and non-piped water demand is a necessary prerequisite for predicting how consumers will react to such price increases. Using cross-sectional data of 1,800 households from Southwest Sri Lanka, we estimate water demand functions for piped and non-piped households using appropriate econometric techniques. The (marginal) price elasticity is estimated at -0.15 for households exclusively relying on piped water, and at -0.37 for households using piped water but supplementing their supply with other water sources. The time cost elasticity for households relying on non-piped water only is estimated at -0.06 on average, but varying across sources. For both piped and non-piped households, we find evidence of substitutability between water from different sources. We discuss the implications of these results in terms of pricing policy. 2012-03-30T07:29:49Z 2012-03-30T07:29:49Z 2009 Journal Article Environmental and Resource Economics 09246460 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4804 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article Sri Lanka |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
EN |
| topic |
Gas Utilities Pipelines Water Utilities L950 Economic Development: Agriculture Natural Resources Energy Environment Other Primary Products O130 Economic Development: Regional, Urban, and Rural Analyses Transportation O180 Land Ownership and Tenure Land Reform Land Use Irrigation Agriculture and Environment Q150 Renewable Resources and Conservation: Water Q250 |
| spellingShingle |
Gas Utilities Pipelines Water Utilities L950 Economic Development: Agriculture Natural Resources Energy Environment Other Primary Products O130 Economic Development: Regional, Urban, and Rural Analyses Transportation O180 Land Ownership and Tenure Land Reform Land Use Irrigation Agriculture and Environment Q150 Renewable Resources and Conservation: Water Q250 Nauges, Celine van den Berg, Caroline Demand for Piped and Non-piped Water Supply Services : Evidence from Southwest Sri Lanka |
| geographic_facet |
Sri Lanka |
| relation |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo |
| description |
In many countries, water supply is a service that is seriously underpriced, especially for residential consumers. This has led to a call for setting cost recovery policies to ensure that the tariffs charged for water supply cover the full cost of service provision. Identification of factors driving piped and non-piped water demand is a necessary prerequisite for predicting how consumers will react to such price increases. Using cross-sectional data of 1,800 households from Southwest Sri Lanka, we estimate water demand functions for piped and non-piped households using appropriate econometric techniques. The (marginal) price elasticity is estimated at -0.15 for households exclusively relying on piped water, and at -0.37 for households using piped water but supplementing their supply with other water sources. The time cost elasticity for households relying on non-piped water only is estimated at -0.06 on average, but varying across sources. For both piped and non-piped households, we find evidence of substitutability between water from different sources. We discuss the implications of these results in terms of pricing policy. |
| format |
Journal Article |
| author |
Nauges, Celine van den Berg, Caroline |
| author_facet |
Nauges, Celine van den Berg, Caroline |
| author_sort |
Nauges, Celine |
| title |
Demand for Piped and Non-piped Water Supply Services : Evidence from Southwest Sri Lanka |
| title_short |
Demand for Piped and Non-piped Water Supply Services : Evidence from Southwest Sri Lanka |
| title_full |
Demand for Piped and Non-piped Water Supply Services : Evidence from Southwest Sri Lanka |
| title_fullStr |
Demand for Piped and Non-piped Water Supply Services : Evidence from Southwest Sri Lanka |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Demand for Piped and Non-piped Water Supply Services : Evidence from Southwest Sri Lanka |
| title_sort |
demand for piped and non-piped water supply services : evidence from southwest sri lanka |
| publishDate |
2012 |
| url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4804 |
| _version_ |
1764392826667270144 |