RIS ID
15288
Abstract
This paper uses suburb-level quarterly data to model residential water demand in Brisbane, Australia from 1998 to 2003. In this system, residential consumption is charged using a fixed annual service fee with no water entitlement followed by a fixed volumetric charge per kilolitre. Water demand is specified as average quarterly household water consumption and the demand characteristics include the marginal price of water, household income and size, and the number of rainy and warm days. The findings not only confirm residential water as price and income inelastic, but also that the price and income elasticity of demand in owner-occupied households is higher than in rented households. The results also show that weather, particularly summer months and the number of rainy days, exerts a strong influence on residential water consumption.
Publication Details
This article was originally published as Hoffmann, M, Worthington, AC and Higgs, H, Urban water demand with fixed volumetric charging in a large municipality: the case of Brisbane, Australia, Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 50(3), September 2006, 347-359. Available here. Author Posting. © Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Inc. and Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Inc. and Blackwell Publishing Ltd for personal use, not for redistribution.