The Value of Scarce Water: Measuring the Inefficiency of Municipal Regulations
The Value of Scarce Water: Measuring the Inefficiency of Municipal Regulations
复制标题
稀缺水资源的价值：衡量市政法规的低效率
DOI：
10.2139/ssrn.875439
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发表时间：
2006
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Sheila M. Olmstead
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
E. Mansur;Sheila M. Olmstead
决策者没有允许城市水价反映干旱导致需求过剩期间的稀缺租金，而是强制采取命令和控制的方法，主要是对户外用水进行配给。虽然这些政策无处不在，而且可能效率低下，但经济学家无法获得足够的数据来估计其经济影响。使用独特的面板数据在11个北美城市的住宅用水的最终用途，我们研究了福利的影响，城市供水配给，以应对干旱。使用不同的预期边际价格，在市场之间和内部的估计，我们估计特定的室内和室外用水的价格弹性。我们的研究结果表明，目前的政策确实针对家庭本身最愿意放弃的用水。然而，我们发现，配给户外水在城市有昂贵的福利影响，主要是由于家庭异质性愿意支付稀缺的水。我们发现，用市场出清的“干旱价格”取代配给政策，将导致样本家庭每年在水上花费的福利收益超过29%。
Rather than allowing urban water prices to reflect scarcity rents during periods of drought-induced excess demand, policy makers have mandated command-and-control approaches, primarily rationing the use of water outdoors. While such policies are ubiquitous and likely inefficient, economists have not had access to sufficient data to estimate their economic impact. Using unique panel data on residential end-uses of water in 11 North American cities, we examine the welfare implications of urban water rationing in response to drought. Using estimates of expected marginal prices that vary both across and within markets, we estimate price elasticities specific to indoor and outdoor water use. Our results suggest that current policies do target water uses that households, themselves, are most willing to forgo. Nevertheless, we find that rationing outdoor water in cities has costly welfare implications, primarily due to household heterogeneity in willingness-to-pay for scarce water. We find that replacing rationing policies with a market-clearing “drought price” would result in welfare gains of more than 29% of what households in the sample spend each year on water.