Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.3390/w10030248
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Increasing block tariffs in an arid developing country: A discrete/continuous choice model of residential water demand in Jordan
Author Klassert, C.; Sigel, K.; Klauer, B.; Gawel, E.
Source Titel Water
Year 2018
Department OEKON
Volume 10
Issue 3
Page From art. 248
Language englisch
Keywords residential water demand; Jordan; discrete/continuous choice model; price elasticity; increasing block tariff; linearly progressive tariff; cross-subsidization; Middle East; developing country; household-level data
Abstract Arid developing countries face growing challenges from water scarcity, which are exacerbated by deficient piped water supply infrastructures. Increasing block tariffs (IBTs), charging higher rates with increasing water consumption, can potentially reconcile cost recovery to finance these infrastructures with an equitable and affordable sharing of the cost burden. A firm understanding of the impacts of varying prices and socio-economic conditions on residential water demand is necessary for designing IBTs that promote these objectives. Consistently estimating water demand under an IBT requires a discrete/continuous choice (DCC) model. Despite this, few econometric studies of arid developing countries have applied this state-of-the-art approach. This paper applies a DCC model to estimate residential water demand under IBTs in the severely water-stressed country of Jordan, using 15,811 country-wide household-level observations from five years up to 2013. We extend Hewitt and Hanemann’s original DCC formulation in order to accommodate IBTs featuring a linearly progressive tariff block. We then use the resulting demand function to assess Jordan’s 2013 IBTs and alternative IBT designs. Under the estimated price elasticities, very few IBT designs achieve a full recovery of the financial costs of water provision, but we still identify a potential to improve cost recovery and affordability
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=20626
Klassert, C., Sigel, K., Klauer, B., Gawel, E. (2018):
Increasing block tariffs in an arid developing country: A discrete/continuous choice model of residential water demand in Jordan
Water 10 (3), art. 248 10.3390/w10030248