modelling seasonality in residential water demand the case of tunisia this article proposes to model seasonal patterns of residential water demand using the techniques of seasonal integration and cointegration the methodology is applied to quarterly aggregate time series data for tunisia 1980 2007 applying the same increasing multi step pricing scheme in the whole country first a seasonal cointegration analysis demonstrates the relevance of a pricing policy that increases the size of the lower consumption block in summer second the nonseasonal cointegration analysis reveals a relatively high price elasticity for the highest consumption block therefore we also propose to increase the tariff progressivity to promote water savings this modified pricing scheme will help to achieve goals of environmental protection and social equity

estimating residential water demand under multi part tariffs using aggregate data using a new model formulation and data from a sample of colorado utilities we investigated the price specification controversy marginal price versus average revenue when estimating residential water demand the improved statistical fit using average

the elasticity of export demand for u s cotton the conceptually relevant elasticity for policy analysis is the total export demand elasticity which takes into account feedback effects of the u s price on other countries prices in this paper a total export demand elasticity for u s cotton is estimated in an extended armington framework the results indicate that the export demand facing the united states is probably elastic however estimated total demand elasticities are considerably less elastic than the estimated direct demand elasticities which do not account for feedback effects resulting from finite excess supply elasticities in the rest of the world in designing agricultural policy a knowledge of relevant elasticities is essential given the current economic climate characterized by volatile export markets and prices the price elasticity of export demand has received considerable attention economists however have not reached a consensus about the magnitude of this parameter in their review of studies of price elasticity of export demand for agricultural commodities gardiner and dixit report seven estimates of the elasticity of export demand for u s cotton ranging from 0 02 taylor and collins to 5 5 johnson because the policy recommendations based on the assumption of an elastic foreign demand could differ dramatically from those based on the assumption of inelastic foreign demand further research in this area is warranted the objective of this paper is to develop estimates of the elasticity of foreign demand for u s cotton the armington approach was used to formulate models for estimation because it is simple to formulate is a powerful method for modeling u s crop exports sarris 1981 thompson and had not been used extensively in modeling cotton trade the study differs from previous works by extending the armington framework to estimate total elasticities of demand in which feedback effects of u s price on the price of other countries cotton is taken into account results from this paper should be useful in estimating the elasticity of export demand for u s cotton and in demonstrating the importance of estimating total export demand elasticities

dividend taxes corporate investment and q abstract taxes on corporate distributions have traditionally been regarded as a double tax on corporate income this view implies that while the total effective tax rate on corporate source income affects real economic decisions the distribution of this tax burden between the shareholders and the corporation is irrelevant recent research has suggested an alternative to this traditional view one explanation of why firms in the united states pay dividends in spite of the heavy tax liabilities associated with this form of distribution is that the stock market capitalizes the tax payments associated with corporate distributions this capitalization leaves investors indifferent at the margin between a corporation s decision to pay out dividends or to retain earnings this alternative view holds that while changes in the dividend tax rate will affect shareholder wealth they will have no impact on corporate investment decisions this paper develops econometric tests which distinguish between these two views of dividend taxation by extending tobin s q theory of investment to incorporate taxes at both the corporate and personal levels the implications of each view for corporate investment decisions can be derived the competing views may be tested by comparing the performance of investment equations estimated under each theory s predictions british time series data are particularly appropriate for testing hypotheses about dividend taxes because of the substantial postwar variation in effective tax rates on corporate distributions the econometric results suggest that dividend taxes have important effects on investment decisions

depreciation rules and value invariance with extractive firms the application of samuelson s theorem on value invariance to the case of intertemporally optimizing firms is shown to require a judiciously chosen economic depreciation formula which depends on both current stock and current flow variables in order to prevent the firms from changing their actions in the face of the tax regime we illustrate by deriving depreciation rules which achieve non distortingness of actions and value invariance for resource extracting firms

determinants of household electricity demand a two stage probit approach considerable interest on the part of policy makers in both the public and private sectors has spawned numerous studies of the determinants of residential electricity demand as a result of increased attention given to the possibility of adjusting household electricity consumption patterns through price manipulation as in the various peak load pricing experiments particular emphasis has been placed on obtaining an accurate estimate of the price elasticity of demand unfortunately ols applied to the conventional linear or log linear demand specification is biased and inconsistent when the sample includes households that face declining block rate schedules the inconsistency results from the fact that in the presence of declining block rates observed marginal price is a stochastic regressor that is negatively correlated with the regression error term some researchers have suggested that consistent ols estimation can be achieved by merely respecifying the demand equation to include particular combinations of marginal price average price rate of decline of the price schedule and real income corrected for intra marginal price differences 1 7 8 others realizing the futility of such an approach have developed and applied instrumental variable iv techniques 4 6 11 these iv methods however all involve an artificial linearization of the rate schedule which produces spurious negative correlation between the price variable and the random error term as a result such iv methods tend to overcompensate for actual correlation consequently the iv estimated coefficients of the various demand determinants will exhibit biases opposite in sign to those of their ols counterparts for example in the presence of declining block rates ols tends to overestimate the price elasticity of demand in absolute value while iv methods produce elasticity estimates that are downward biased a two stage probit tsp method developed by terza and welch 10 is not subject to the bias that plagues iv methods because tsp does not require a linear approximation to the rate schedule instead the discrete and discontinuous nature of household responses to declining block pricing is captured by incorporating an ordinal probit model that is based on a theory of consumer choice in the present paper a linear electricity demand model is estimated using the tsp ols and iv methods to demonstrate the effectiveness of the tsp method

a note on price perception in water demand models a household s decision to acquire price knowledge is endogenous in the demand for utility services and may affect elasticities and consumption levels a simultaneous equation model with endogenous switching is developed to evaluate the effects of price

perceived price in residential water demand evidence from a natural experiment abstract under complicated billing structures the price to which consumers respond remains inconclusive in this paper i exploit a quasi experiment to estimate a causal effect of price for residential water customers during the introduction of increasing block rates for a north carolina utility perceived price is identified through a billing anomaly in which changes in marginal and average prices move in opposite directions empirical results contribute evidence that residential water customers respond to average price average price elasticity estimates vary from 0 43 to 1 14 across the distribution of consumption in triple difference models with an estimate of 0 31 in the tightest bandwidth of regression discontinuity specifications

electricity demand estimates under increasing block rates using price variables calculated at observed consumption levels this study finds significant bias in ordinary least squares estimates of price elasticities of electricity demand the bias is most severe for specifications using observed average price the finding is important for future econometric work since this type of rate structure is becoming more common the evidence indicates that inappropriate use of ordinary least squares ols overestimates that rate structure premium effect on demand and may underestimate the marginal price elasticity the use of an instrumental variables technique applied to actual rate schedules proves consistent parameter estimates regardless of the rate structure 20 references 3 tables

on the specification of price in studies of consumer demand under block price scheduling using a new model formulation and data from a sample of colorado utilities we investigated the price specification controversy marginal price versus average revenue when estimating residential water demand the improved statistical fit using average

dynamic tax incidence and intergenerationally neutral reform the paper proposes a basic definition of intergenerational neutrality in the overlapping generations model when agents have a pure life cycle motive of savings the derivation of intergenerationally neutral tax effects provides a redistribution free benchmark case that isolates the relative price effects of taxes and the deadweight losses associated with them the paper clarifies the intergenerational incidence which has to be determined simultaneously with the substitution effects of taxes on savings a tax reform example demonstrates how taxes with diverging intergenerational incidence may be combined to achieve intergenerational neutrality finally the paper extends the analysis of generational tax incidence to the case of a small open economy

the econometrics of kinked budget constraints in the last several years a branch of applied econometrics has developed which is devoted to the development of techniques for the estimation of demand and other functions when the budget constraint is piecewise linear or kinky that is when the constraint consists of a number of segments joined together at kink points such constraints most frequently arise from government tax and transfer programs for example the federal income tax imposes a piecewise linear schedule by the use of constant marginal tax rates within brackets a problem analyzed by hausman 1981 the payroll tax in the social security system likewise generates a kinked schedule inasmuch as the marginal tax rate on earnings is zero above a certain earnings maximum federal and state transfer programs for the poor result in piecewise linear constraints because transfer benefits are taxed in the sense of a negative income tax as income rises and because that tax rate falls to zero at the kink point where an individual or family loses eligibility for the benefit altogether many government transfer programs impose additional nonlinearities by altering this tax rate by discrete amounts over the range of positive benefits as well but kinked constraints sometimes arise in nongovernment contexts a well known example being the block pricing schedule commonly set by utilities and volume discounting in general kinked budget constraints create two difficulties that have several interesting facets one difficulty is that changes in tax and transfer schedules can have unexpected effects that can be exactly the opposite in sign to those expected from economic theory examples of this phenomenon are given below the second difficulty that with which this paper is mostly concerned relates to the implications of kinked budget

modeling commercial demand for water exploring alternative prices instrumental variables and heterogeneity in this paper we introduce a previously unused instrumental variable to estimate the elasticity of commercial water demand for firms served by a large municipal utility we then present evidence that firms are more responsive to one period lagged average price than marginal price finally we find notable differences in elasticity among different categories of businesses the findings in this paper are particularly important as water utilities consider how to maintain revenue while coping with limited water supplies and increasing commercial demand

the vanishing harberger triangle this paper shows that the double taxation of corporate dividends or profit repatriations implies a nucleus theory of the corporation after the firm is set up with a small stock of original capital it enters a phase of purely internal growth during which no dividends are paid and no shares are issued the phase terminates when an efficient stock of capital has been accumulated and dividends are paid during the growth phases the tax distortion is inversely related to the tax burden and it is larger than conventional formulae for the cost of internal and external equity finance suggest

demand specification for municipal water management evaluation of the stone geary form to specify demand in most water allocation problems researchers face a tradeoff between flexibility and parsimony flexible forms are less constraining on elasticity estimates but require large parameter sets that tend to cause poor out of sample forecasts and computational difficulties using a five year panel of texas municipalities the parsimonious stone geary form yields estimated demand functions that are comparable to flexible form results the stone geary specification also provides an estimate of the portion of water use that may not be responsive to price and is useful in analysing price structures and designing conservation policies

gradual reforms of capital income taxation this paper analyzes the intertemporal allocation effects of anticipated tax rate changes reconsidering the recommendations of the meade committee in a perfect foresight general equilibrium model of economic growth it is shown that the r base or consumption tax can be more distortionary than an income tax and that a revenue neutral integration of corporate and personal taxation will lower social welfare moreover it is argued that a dividend tax dominates the r base tax because it places its distortions on the financial rather than on the real side of the economy copyright 1989 by american economic association

structural adjustment and the japanese textile industry a production theory approach the production theory approach for modelling trade in intermediate goods is applied to dervie export supply and import demand functions for the japanese textile industry the estimated elasticities provide insight into the process of internal adjustment and structural change reflected in the declining international competitiveness of the japanese textile sector estimation issues related to endogeneity tests and the concavity restictions implied by economic theory are highlighted in the econometric results estimated trade balance adjustments are derived from the parameter estimates of the export supply and import demand functionf for the japanese textile sector

alternate price specifications for estimating residential water demand with fixed fees using a new model formulation and data from a sample of colorado utilities we investigated the price specification controversy marginal price versus average revenue when estimating residential water demand the improved statistical fit using average revenue as the price variable was shown to be an artifact of the unitary elastic identity created when monthly rate schedules contain a fixed fee when the fixed fee was purged from the data average price was not significant but marginal price remained significant in the preferred double log marginal price model estimated price elasticity was 0 3 and conservation programs had no significant effect on water use

a discrete continuous choice approach to residential water demand under block rate pricing reply waldman is quite correct in noting that the microeconomic theory of block rate pricing in hewitt and hanemann hh 1995 is given for the general case of a k block rate structure whereas the econometric theory is largely confined to the case of exactly two blocks the extension in waldman to the more general case of k blocks is correct although the extension itself could be even more general if it addressed the nonnegativity of demand as is demonstrated below that no apparent attention was paid to the nonnegativity of demand in hh may be attributed to the fact that the need to do so was negated by a fortuitous assumption in the earlier work although that assumption that the errors are multiplicative and lognormally distributed was only maintained and not tested in hh i now estimate two models with the more common assumptions of linear demand and additive and normally distributed errors both with and without a modification for

an empirical survey of residential water demand modelling abstract the increased reliance on demand side management policies as an urban water consumption management tool has stimulated considerable debate among economists water utility managers regulators consumer interest groups and policymakers in turn this has fostered an increasing volume of literature aimed at providing best practice estimates of price and income elasticities quantifying the impact of non price water restrictions and gauging the impact of non discretionary environmental factors affecting residential water demand this paper provides a synoptic survey of empirical residential water demand analyses conducted in the last 25 years both model specification and estimation and the outcomes of the analyses are discussed

quasi fixed inputs in u s and japanese manufacturing a generalized leontief restricted cost function approach in this paper a generalized leontief variable cost function is develope d which permits analytical derivation of steady state levels of quasi fixed inputs and capacity output and does not require specification of a numeraire input this framework is then used to evaluate the fa ctor demand patterns of japanese and u s manufacturing based on bot h one quasi fixed capital input and two quasi fixed capital and la bor input specifications and both static and dynamic optimization t he findings provide evidence of considerable flexibility of demand re sponses in japan which may have contributed to japan s relatively st rong economic performance in the volatile 1970s copyright 1988 by mit press

estimation of residential water demand with imperfect price perception using data from a household survey carried out in the french overseas territory of reunion we investigate the price of drinking water perceived by households faced with an increasing multi step pricing scheme to this purpose we use an improved version of the method introduced by shin 1985 to estimate the demand for residential water when consumers are imperfectly informed about their pricing schedule the empirical results suggest that reunion households underestimate the price of water and thus consume more than what is economically rational providing information to households about the marginal price of water may be an innovative means of inducing them to respond to pricing policies designed to promote water conservation

demand and distributional effects of water pricing policies abstract worldwide water scarcity threatens delivery of water to urban centers water pricing is often recommended to reduce demand in this paper demand and distributional effects of water pricing policies are examined in a block pricing model that is applied to the metropolitan region of sao paulo water demand functions are estimated using marginal and average price models based on monthly data for the period 1997 2002 price elasticities of water demand range between 0 45 and 0 50 and income elasticities between 0 39 and 0 42 for the current combined regressive progressive block price system the poor spend almost 4 2 to 4 7 of their income on water the rich only pay 0 4 to 0 5 of their income whereas they consume more than twice as much a progressive block price or an income dependent price system may result in a more equalized income distribution however the analysis shows that there is a trade off between a more equalized income distribution and revenues earned by the water company more pro poor pricing systems may result as well in lower revenues for the water company

household water demand seasonal elasticities a stone geary model under an increasing block rate structure using household level panel data from tucson arizona and a unique set of highly disaggregated control variables we estimate residential demand for water via a stone geary specification the stone geary functional form allows price elasticity of demand to vary with quantity consumed price and income and enables estimation of a threshold level of consumption below which demand is considered perfectly price inelastic an encompassing test of consumer price response reveals evidence favoring a lagged average price specification rather than one using lagged marginal price the estimated model also finds substantial seasonal variation in price elasticity and declining consumer price responsiveness

price knowledge in household demand for utility services a household s decision to acquire price knowledge is endogenous in the demand for utility services and may affect elasticities and consumption levels a simultaneous equation model with endogenous switching is developed to evaluate the effects of price knowledge and other sources of heterogeneity results indicate informed households were more responsive to average and marginal price signals informed households also use less water but this is due to heterogeneity rather than price knowledge controlling for heterogeneity price knowledge actually increases monthly water usage the implications of accounting for differences in price knowledge in utility demand modeling and demand management policy are discussed

urban residential demand for water in the united states further discussion using a new model formulation and data from a sample of colorado utilities we investigated the price specification controversy marginal price versus average revenue when estimating residential water demand the improved statistical fit using average

determinants of residential water demand in germany abstract we econometrically analyze the impact of several economic environmental and social determinants for the per capita demand for water in about 600 water supply areas in germany besides prices income and household size we consider the effects of population age the share of wells housing patterns precipitation and temperature we also explore why current per capita residential water consumption in the new federal states is about 30 lower than in the old federal states since average cost pricing may cause an endogeneity problem we apply instrumental variable procedures in addition to single equation ordinary least squares but find no evidence that prices are endogenous our estimation results suggest that the price elasticity of water demand in germany is around 0 24 the income elasticity is positive decreases with higher income levels and is at least three times higher in the new federal states than in the old federal states current differences in prices and income levels explain about one third of the gap in residential water use between the two regions household size and the share of wells have a negative impact on per capita water demand and water use increases with age finally the findings provide some evidence that rainfall patterns rather than total rainfall affect water consumption while temperature appears to have no impact at all all outcomes are robust to a log log and two types of semi log specifications for the water demand function

are financing constraints binding for investment evidence from a natural experiment abstract this paper shows that the availability of cash flows dominates the effects of cost of capital for investment at the firm level using an exogenous tax reform in canada as a quasi natural experiment i find that a temporary and unexpected increase in the cost of capital for firms with low availability of retained earnings has no effect on investment of those firms a subsequent direct increase in the availability of cash flows has large effects on investment this suggests that internal financing constraints are binding for firms as they prefer to use low cost retained earnings to finance their investment

efficiency and equity in natural resources pricing a proposal for urban water distribution service this paper focuses on the design of optimal prices for urban water distribution service in this context pricing should be aimed at achieving efficiency equity financial aspects and or public acceptability and transparency the proposed tariffs are based on the theoretical frameworks suggested by ramsey 1927 and feldstein 1972 as a prior step estimations of urban water demands and water costs are carried out for the spanish municipality of seville finally an empirical comparison in welfare terms is conducted between the proposed tariffs and those applicable in the year 2000

anticipated tax reforms and temporary tax cuts a general equilibrium analysis macroeconomic studies of tax policy in dynamic general equilibrium usually assume that reforms hit the economy unexpectedly and last forever here we explore how previous results change when we allow policy changes to be pre announced and of finite duration and when these facts are anticipated by households and firms quantitatively we demonstrate a headstart advantage from pre announcement that is never caught up by a surprising reform the welfare gain stemming from a 5 year announcement phase of a corporate tax cut for example is estimated to be around 10 percent of the total gain from the reform we show that impulse responses of important variables like firm value dividends and investment differ qualitatively depending on whether the reform comes expected or not we are also able to demonstrate a genuine welfare gain from temporary tax cuts impulse responses generated by our numerical method can be retraced by phase diagram analysis which facilitates explanation and interpretation of the produced results

comparing residential water demand estimates under decreasing and increasing block rates using household data using a new model formulation and data from a sample of colorado utilities we investigated the price specification controversy marginal price versus average revenue when estimating residential water demand the improved statistical fit using average

welfare and distribution effects of water pricing policies in this paper distribution and welfare effects of changes in block price systems are evaluated a method is discussed to determine for a marshallian demand function equivalent variation in case of a block price system the method is applied to compare for the metropolitan region of sao paulo alternative pricing policies on the basis of their demand welfare and distribution effects of changing water prices results show that there is a trade off between average welfare and income distribution a pro poor price system may result in lower average welfare than a flat price system but in higher individual welfare for the poor moreover there is a trade off between revenues for the water company and income distribution even though pro poor price systems may not be as good for average welfare as flat price systems their direct effects on poverty are important introducing pro poor price systems however may have financial consequences for the water companies

household electricity and gas consumption for heating homes energy consumption has been drastically changed because of energy source depletion price fluctuations development and penetration of alternative energy sources and government policies household energy sources are interrelated and energy price and household characteristics such as income level and dwelling size affect the usage to supply energy consistently and achieve a balance between production and consumption stakeholders must understand consumer energy consumption behavior therefore this study identifies household heating energy usage patterns and the substitutive and or complementary relationships between electricity and gas based on a multiple discrete continuous extreme value model household utility structure is identified from data on gas heating usage results show greater utility and the smallest satiation values for gas boilers than for electric heaters and electric heating beds the effects of consumer socioeconomic and environmental characteristics on the choice of heating energy sources were analyzed also for further comparison the respondents were split into high and low categories for income heating degree days dwelling size and gas usage gas was found to be the most economical heating choice for households

perception of price when price information is costly evidence from residential electricity demand a bstract residential electricity consumption is an example of a good for which it is costly to determine marginal price since price changes with the quantity purchased according to multistep block rate schedules this paper investigates the effect of the price information problem on consumers price perceptions an alternative hypothesis of average price perception is tested against the marginal price postulate which assumes wellinformed consumers the model which includes a price perception variable allows the estimation of the price to which consumers actually respond the empirical results support the hypothesis that consumers respond to average price perceived from the electricity bill

estimating water demand under increasing block tariffs using aggregate data and proportions of users per block forming a strategy for the management of a water resource requires reasonable knowledge of the effects that alterations in the control variables bring on water use such knowledge of the determinants influencing domestic water demand constitutes an essential ingredient of a pricing policy for domestic water supply special attention should be paid to the effects of the level shape and frequency of the tariff since these are the variables that can be altered by the policy maker

environmental regulation of households an empirical review of economic and psychological factors abstract the literature on sustainable consumption and environmental regulation of household behavior is dominated by conceptual and normative approaches as a result many suggestions lack a firm empirical basis to overcome this deficiency econometric studies in three areas of environmentally relevant activities of households are reviewed residential use of energy generation of solid waste and recycling and residential use of water next to price and income elasticities attention is devoted to individual socio economic features and psychological factors such as attitudes knowledge perceptions and values potential psychological determinants and related insights are further examined by discussing a range of representative and illustrative statistical psychological studies of environmental behavior one important general finding is that there are very few empirical studies that systematically combine socio economic and psychological determinants a range of insights for environmental policy is derived and research recommendations are offered

residential demand for electricity under inverted block rates evidence from a controlled experiment block rate structures are used extensively in public utility pricing including residential electricity estimating price elasticities in this context is complicated by the resulting nonlinearity of the consumer s budget constraint this article estimates the demand for electricity under inverted block rates using data from a residential rate experiment the study provides an opportunity to obtain short run price elasticities in an experimental setting and to compare alternative estimators developed for nonlinear budget constraints elasticities of demand with respect to individual components of the block rate are developed using a modification of the structural maximum likelihood estimator

price and income elasticities of residential water demand a meta analysis this article presents a meta analysis of variations in price and income elasticities of residential water demand meta analysis constitutes an adequate tool to synthesize research results by means of an analysis of the variation in empirical estimates reported in the literature we link the variation in estimated elasticities to differences in theoretical microeconomic choice approaches differences in spatial and temporal dynamics as well as differences in research design of the underlying studies the occurrence of increasing or decreasing block rate systems turns out to be important with respect to price elasticities the use of the discrete continuous choice approach is relevant in explaining observed differences

instrumental variables approach to rural water service demand interest in empirical studies of the demand for goods sold through discrete pricing structures has grown since nordin suggested a modification of taylor s demand model 24 29 the bulk of early empirical research centered on residential electricity demand however econometric studies of water demand have proliferated in recent years some articles have been concerned in part with the proper theoretical specification of demand equations incorporating block rate pricing schedules taylor specified price as being composed of the marginal price associated with the block in which consumption occurs and an average price 29 nordin modified taylor s specification by demonstrating utility maximizing consumers with perfect information respond to marginal price along with a lump sum income effect associated with intramarginal prices and price schedule breakpoints 24 there is a potential problem in the estimation of demand for goods sold through block rate pricing schemes because of the possibility of correlation between price variables and the error structure 29 there are then two issues associated with the study of demand for goods sold under discrete pricing mechanisms the first issue is whether if consumers are aware of block pricing structures and respond to marginal price and the lump sum income change or rate premium or are aware of only total spending and total consumption and respond to an average price 11 5 9 26 the second issue is the choice of estimating technique 4 14 20 31 25 these two issues are not unrelated since empirical validation of consumer behavior

effect of price information on residential water demand microeconomic theory predicts that people decrease consumption when price increases the magnitude of the effect depending on price elasticity the law of demand however implicitly assumes that consumers know prices an assumption that is not always satisfied in markets with ex post billing when prices are not transparent elasticity estimates are potentially lower than their full information potential evidence of low price elasticity abounds in residential water demand studies limiting the effectiveness and desirability of using price signals as a conservation tool it is hypothesized that resident s sluggish response to price is partly due to the absence of price information on water bills differences in the informational content of bills are documented for the first time on the basis of sample bills collected from 383 utilities across the usa a standard aggregate water demand model is augmented with qualitative variables describing differences in billing information allowing such variables to a

measuring the income elasticity of water demand the importance of publication and endogeneity biases we present the first study that examines the effects of publication selection in the literature estimating the income elasticity of water demand paradoxically more affected by publication selection are the otherwise preferable estimates that control for endogeneity attempting to correct simultaneously for publication and endogeneity biases we find that the mean underlying elasticity is approximately 0 15 or less the result is robust to controlling for more than 30 characteristics of the estimates and accounting for model uncertainty the differences in the reported estimates are systematically driven by differences in the tariff structure regional coverage data granularity and control for temperature

regulatory preferences and two part tariffs the case of electricity the purpose of this paper is to develop and demonstrate a method for deriving and testing regulatory preferences within and across customer classes and to assess the impact of these preferences on price structures and regulatory effectiveness in the electric utility industry the method extends a technique described in both nelson and ross for uncovering interclass preferences in a uniform price framework 24 33 34 by employing a two part tariff framework the extension enables the derivation of both interclass and intraclass preferences intraclass preferences can be derived in a two part tariff framework because regulators can discriminate not only between customer classes as with uniform prices but also within a customer class two part tariffs are also introduced because actual price structures in the electric utility industry are better approximated by two part tariffs than by uniform prices models of optimal two part tariffs particularly those of schmalensee and sherman and visscher are extended to allow regulatory preferences to vary across and within heterogeneous customer classes 36 37 13 27 11 25 19 18 22 2 these variable preferences are incorporated into a weighted social surplus function which regulators are assumed to maximize given this model of regulatory behavior preference weights can be derived for the electric utility industry with information on the markups of both per unit prices over marginal costs of kwh output and fixed charges over the marginal costs of customer connection and on output and connection demand elasticities

are price strategies effective in managing demand of high residential water users abstractencouraging water use efficiency and water conservation is one of the primary goals of water utility companies nationwide this study estimates price elasticity of residential water demand to measure the responsiveness of water use to price changes particularly for high water users household level water use data for high residential water users from central florida were analysed using 3 stage least square 3sls estimated price elasticity ranges between 0 07 and 0 14 this price elasticity estimate is below most of the estimates reported in the literature in absolute value the results imply that for price strategies to be effective in managing water demand of high residential water users a significant price increase would be needed overall this study highlights the importance of designing water conservation policies tailored to specific groups of customers and the importance of using these strategies effectively and fairly for different customer groups

evidence on the specification of price in the study of domestic water demand the development of lakefront property in northern wisconsin has prompted in several towns minimum frontage zoning stricter than the state standard such zoning generates an economic loss by constraining development development effect and an economic

industrial companies demand for electricity evidence from a micropanel abstract the paper presents a micro econometric analysis of industrial companies demand for electricity previous studies on electricity consumption in the industrial sector have relied on aggregate data or cross section observations here we present an econometric study on electricity demand based on a panel of 2949 danish companies followed from 1983 to 1996 it is found that estimators of electricity demand that take account of the panel structure fixed effect models yield considerably lower price and production elasticities compared to estimators that do not like cross section models it is also investigated how various company characteristics like size type of industrial sub sector and electricity intensity in production influence price and production elasticities it appears that companies with a high electricity intensity also have a high own price elasticity

urban water demand with periodic error correction monthly demand for publicly supplied water to u s residences and businesses is estimated from a 10 year panel of 167 cities a periodic error correction model integrates monthly annual and long run time scales statistical consistency is validated by unit root tests adapted to the monthly frequency water and wastewater price elasticity of demand is estimated by sector calendar month and time horizon

potential for pricing policies in water resource management estimation of urban residential water demand in zaragoza spain this paper presents an empirical study to estimate the urban residential water demand in zaragoza spain this allows the testing of the short run sensitivity of water demand to changes in a set of