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

long run water demand estimation habits adjustment dynamics and structural breaks this article examines a water demand equation for milan for the second half of the 20th century 1950 2001 we focus mainly on the effects of price and habits but also account for other factors in the demand for water such as climate income and productive activity allowing for trend break stationarity or nonlinear trend stationarity we find evidence against the unit root hypothesis for many time series based on this result standard cointegration analysis would not be appropriate therefore we adopt an alternative estimation and testing procedure we focus in particular on the so called bounds testing approach which can be applied irrespective of the level of integration of the variables and which can be a useful modelling strategy given that dynamics are important when estimating a water demand equation the main results are that long run price elasticity is higher than short run elasticity and that consumption habits are relevant we also find that both climate sectoral and technological modif

internalizing neighborhood externalities the effect of subdivision size and zoning on residential lot prices abstract though land development regulations potentially control neighborhood externalities the developer of a residential subdivision contributes to that control by developing a larger parcel of land this paper reports estimates of the effect of parcel size on the sale price of developed building lots the results indicate that adding an acre to the median development increases lot prices by about 3 amenities appear to be income normal and the return to parcel size is greater in unincorporated areas perhaps due to less intensive governmental control over externalities

a review of the water energy nexus abstract water and electricity are fundamentally linked at a basic level electricity generation requires water and water treatment and transportation use electricity historically there has been little reason to understand the nature of these links due largely to the presumption that water was not a threat to energy security nor electricity a threat to water security this presumption is now being challenged industry reforms increasing demand and more recently climate change are bringing into sharp focus the links between water and electricity in unprecedented ways general awareness of the links between water and electricity is increasing daily as the ramifications of the links are being felt the world over society s ability to deal with the challenges and uncertainties arising from the links between water and electricity is being hindered by limited understanding of the nature of the links and seeming lack of policy tools to effectively analyze them this paper reviews comprehensively the links between water and electricity presents a classification system for identifying links using the classification system this study further discusses these links by drawing upon examples from literature and follows with a synopsis of the nature of these links with this background the paper reviews and compares water energy studies in terms of scope objectives methodologies and key findings discusses major limitations of these studies and identifies important areas that would benefit from more in depth research this research contends that this type of approach is unsuitable in the longer term particularly when examining complex and multidimensional issues like the water energy nexus this work suggests that the nature of the nexus should and can be explored from a wider perspective by developing a suitable integrated methodological framework to serve as a platform for such exploration the purpose of this paper therefore is to outline the development of such a framework introduces integral theory and discusses how integral theory has shaped the development of the methodological framework employed in this research presents the framework and describes the suite of methods

the effects of zoning on structure and land markets abstract zoning takes three general forms constraints on density lot size and allowable use this paper demonstrates that the three restrictions differ in their effects on structure and land markets density zoning is equivalent to a monopoly restriction that can be used to raise all land values allowable use restrictions affect land values differentially large lot restrictions affect the price for housing paid by individual households differentially considering externalities does not alter these basic differences the implications for empirical studies of zoning are discussed

water and energy price impacts on residential water demand in copenhagen while water price effects on residential water demand have been studied for several decades the impact of energy prices does not seem to have received much attention in this paper a residential water demand function derived from a model of household production of final consumption goods taking water energy and an aggregate of other goods as inputs is estimated on pooled time series data we find negative energy cross price elasticities around 0 2 and water price elasticities in the order of 0 1 or smaller

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

challenges in the portuguese textile and clothing industry a fight for survival abstractthe portuguese textile and clothing industry thrived after 1960 when portugal joined the european free trade association and it has been an important industry in portugal in terms of valu

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

privately operated water utilities municipal price negotiation and estimation of residential water demand the case of france this paper addresses the issue of price negotiation between a municipality and a private water utility operator and its implications for residential water demand estimation we use appropriate econometric procedures to estimate a water demand equation on a panel of french municipalities we find evidence that negotiated water price depends on municipality s characteristics causing endogeneity of price in the demand equation the impact of average household income housing and system features such as metering is investigated both on municipal consumption and price estimated price and income elasticities are significant and close to previous household level studies

cost relationships and globalization in the australian clothing industry abstractaustralia developed a substantial clothing industry with protectionist international trade policies including prohibitively high tariffs quotas and subsidies the industry became an important source of jobs with over 6 5 per cent of total manufacturing employment at the close of the 1960s as australia has moved towards freer trade employment in clothing production has fallen substantially the question of whether the clothing industry can remain viable in its new environment became an important issue here we examine two crucial economic considerations relating to that question economies of scale and relations substitute complementary between the various inputs both domestic and outsourced foreign the findings strongly indicate the presence of economies of scale and that the industry has reduced its unit costs over the period of study the results also suggest that most of the inputs are substitutes for one another although only the estimated cross price elasticities between capital a

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

diffusion of development the late industrializing model and greater east asia diffusion of development the late industrializing model and greater east asia author s alice h amsden source the american economic review vol 81 no 2 papers and proceedings of the hundred and third annual meeting of the american economic association may 1991 pp 282 286 published by american economic association stable url http www jstor org stable 2006870 accessed 15 01 2010 13 30

demand side management policies for residential water use who bears the conservation burden to assess the potential for urban demand side management dsm policies as a water resource management tool we analyze the extent to which price and alternative policy instruments such as use and quantity restrictions and subsidies for water efficient technologies reduce residential demand and their distributional implications by type of household using detailed household level panel data for two california communities the results suggest that the ultimate effects of dsm policies in terms of the reduction in aggregate demand and distribution of water savings among household classes depend both on the policy instrument selected and the composition of aggregate demand

do droughts have long term effects on water consumption evidence from the urban area of barcelona this article examines the long term effects of droughts on water consumption using data of municipalities of the urban area of barcelona two important characteristics of the sample of municipalities are the relatively low water consumption in the pre drought period and the fact that indoor uses are clearly predominant controlling for prices income and various socio demographic factors we find a reduction in water consumption not only during the drought episode but also in subsequent periods these permanent reductions in water use may be explained by household behavioural changes technological changes or structural water policy changes

heating homes understanding the impact of prices abstract studies show that energy prices have an impact on household energy consumption however these studies pay little attention to interpreting the findings and therefore little is known about how and why households respond to energy prices this paper provide an example of an interpretation of the impact of energy prices on consumption from a social practice theoretical perspective this paper investigates the impact of district heating price level on energy used for space heating and hot water by danish households living in single family detached houses the results show a moderately negative effect of the price level on consumption which is stronger in newer presumably more energy efficient houses and for higher income households however the effect varies across years which suggests that the price responsiveness is more a matter of changing everyday practices short term response than being able to afford energy improvements long term response in a practice theoretical perspective the results indicate that price differences have an impact on everyday practices where for example the aspect of energy in everyday practices is perceived as more valuable to practitioners in expensive areas compared to cheaper areas and that the meaning of price in practices is influenced by the social and material contexts

does the minimum lot size program affect farmland values empirical evidence using administrative data and regression discontinuity design in taiwan this study empirically assesses the causal effect of the minimum lot size program on farmland values in taiwan a unique dataset of 4 032 parcels of farmland drawn from administrative foreclosure auction profiles between 2000 and 2008 and regression discontinuity design were applied to cope with the endogeneity issue of land use regulations the results of the parametric and nonparametric estimations indicate that the minimum lot size program significantly increases farmland value by approximately 18 and 15 respectively moreover the program effect is more pronounced for farmland located in urban suburban areas in the absence of a tax effect and externality resulting from non agricultural activities the significant program effect on farmland values is likely to result from the effect of the program on farmland s option value for future development

dynamic demand for residential electricity in taiwan under seasonality and increasing block pricing abstract this paper studies the dynamic demand for residential electricity in taiwan employing a monthly panel data set composed of 19 counties and spanning the period from 2007 01 to 2013 12 the partial adjustment model used addresses the endogeneity of the electricity price that results from the increasing block pricing the estimated results show that there is a significant seasonal difference in the demand for electricity between the summer and non summer periods both the adjustment speed and own price elasticity during the summer months are found to be lower than those in the non summer months due to the hot weather in summer it is easier for consumers to adjust their electricity consumption in response to the changes in electricity pricing during the non summer time the estimated inelastic short run and long run income effects show that electricity is a necessity for consumers moreover the controversial electricity conservation policies are found to be ineffective measures for reducing electricity consumption in taiwan

the economic consequences of regulatory taking risk on land value and development activity abstract in this paper the real options approach to land valuation is extended by i showing how land value may be adversely effected when localities threaten a regulatory taking with less than full compensation ii quantifying the resulting probability of development which may increase in an attempt to thwart the taking of development rights and iii measuring the value of lost income on an ex ante basis when an interim taking occurs we find that the economic impact of such regulation can be substantial which has implications for measuring just compensation claims as well as for general land use regulatory policy and related legal theory

microeconometric analysis of residential water demand this paper develops a structural model for obtaining price elasticities and evaluating consumer s response to changes in nonlinear tariffs when only panel data on household consumption are available the model and the empirical strategy address problems implied by nonlinear tariffs existence of a fixed cost and use of limited data giving rise to a random effects model with a nonlinear individual effect results show that the estimated model does well at fitting data and demand is inelastic although elasticity varies by initial consumption block then i estimate welfare consequences of implementing several demand policies

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

estimating residential water demand in the presence of free allowances the main aim of this paper is to quantify the impact of a rate structure which includes a free allowance on residential water consumption the analysis here differs from most previous research in that it explicitly recognizes that water consumption above the free allowance being sensitive to price responds less to social and climatic factors than consumption below the free allowance while the model specification and estimation procedures used here should be of interest to those interested in the demand for water the results using data for adelaide south australia on the determinants of water consumption should be of interest to water authorities

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

zoning and the distribution of location rents an empirical analysis of harris county texas the coase theorem presents two criteria for evaluating regulation regulations efficiency relative to private solutions and how the regulation affects the distribution of wealth previous studies of the impact of municipal zoning have focused on coase s first criteria whether zoning raises land values overall this study estimates the transfer of wealth between owners of existing homes that results from the creation of a municipal zoning ordinance we find that property best suited to residential use gains in value while property with relatively higher potential as commercial property experiences a decline in the value we find that zoning is distributive

on the theory of growth controls numerous empirical studies have examined the effect of growth controls on housing prices these studies have used many different techniques ranging from hedonic price model estimation to paired comparisons but have all come to the same conclusion growth controls raise the price of housing in theory there are both demand and supply side explanations which need not be mutually exclusive for these observed price differences on the supply side housing caps zoning restrictions limitations on the amount of developable land and other forms of growth control may reduce the supply of housing over time this in turn may produce scarcity effects which manifest as shifts or other changes in the housing supply curve and attendant price increases on the demand side to the extent that growth controls may reduce or internalize expected negative externalities and or congestion costs associated with growth controls may also produce amenity effects such amenity effects manifest as changes in the demand curve and likewise may be capitalized in land values and wages e g the price of a house rises as commute time falls

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

long run study of residential water consumption the estimation of dynamic models and themeasure of long run effects arerare in residential water demand studies weshow in this paper that a dynamicmodel of water consumption can be derived froma structural optimisation programsolved by local communities thisnonlinear model is estimated on asample of french municipalities and is foundasymptotically equivalent to a dynamic panel data model that is linear in theparameters the latter includes anoriginal error component structure that allowsfor a flexible heterogeneity pattern including both the usual idiosyncraticeffect and an additional individualeffect affected by a multiplicative time varyingparameter as usual gmm estimators for panel data are not consistent inthis case we propose a new gmmprocedure that yields consistent and efficientestimates of short and long runprice elasticities respectively 0 26 and 0 40

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

the korean textile industry still competitive after all these years although a vital part of the economy the korean textile industry has been challenged by the recent reduction of international trade barriers particularly as this industry was fully integrated into general agreement on tariffs and trade gatt in 2005 the textile industries in japan and many other countries have also faced difficulties this study examines future prospects for the korean industry by investigating the presence of economies of scale and relationships among the inputs of domestic capital labour and intermediate goods as well as foreign intermediate goods the findings are consistent with constant returns to scale and a substitutes relationship among all input pairs except for domestic capital and foreign intermediate goods thus there appear to be no further cost reductions available through increased output and economies of scale however some reduction in industry output may not result in increased unit costs either a reduction in the price of foreign intermediate goods will not onl

hourly earnings in the united states another look at unionization schooling sickness and unemployment using psid data this paper makes use of panel data to consider the effects of unionization schooling sickness and unemployment on individual earnings our results may be summarized as follows the unionization effect is around 15 20 this measure is consistently estimated controlling for both fixed individual attributes and serially uncorrelated measurement error sickness has little immediate impact but there is some indication that after 4 years earnings have fallen permanently by around 8 consequent on a 10 week spell of sickness a spell of unemployment on the other hand leads to a sharp fall in earnings but this effect decays rapidly leaving the possibility of a small permanent impact finally controlling for all fixed individual attributes we are unable to pin down the schooling effect with any accuracy owing to the absence of instruments that are both valid and effective within the data set

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

specification of block rate price variables in demand models 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

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

determinants of domestic water consumption in hermosillo sonora mexico this article presents a cross sectional study that explored the determinants of domestic water consumption in hermosillo mexico in a continuous 24 h water supply a probability sample with a confidence interval ci of 95 was established by applying a 65 question survey to collect data on 403 households consecutively the model reflecting the water consumption in hermosillo households was identified through a multiple regression analysis using ordinary least squares ols the analysis revealed that the statistically significant variables that explain the domestic water consumption in the home with a share of 31 6 were low water cost number of bathrooms in the household measured service supply use of purified bottled water per week in households and the number of female inhabitants after obtaining the model the monthly water consumption was calculated in a group of houses throughout the equation to compare it with the water consumption measured by the operating agency and it showed an acceptable approximation 78 90 the results contribute to improving the current understanding of factors influencing the use of the vital liquid and they may be useful in the development of policies to promote the sustainable use of water resources

productivity returns to scale and the elasticity of factor substitution in the usa apparel industry abstract in light of the growing trade deficit and unemployment in the us apparel industry we estimate the industry s productivity and efficiency for the period 1976 93 utilizing a variable elasticity of factor substitution production function the results indicate industry adjustment by increasing labor productivity and maintaining fairly stable profits despite job losses performance thus far does not justify additional protectionist trade policy however due to evidence of rapidly decreasing capital productivity substantial technological improvements will be necessary with an elasticity of factor substitution less than one and decreasing an increase in factor prices could result in higher apparel prices and preference for cheaper imports competition in the industry could be intensified by recent rules of the wto to liberalize trade in apparel

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

cost relationships and challenges in the spanish apparel industry in the twenty first century the spanish textile and apparel industries have faced substantial challenges resulting in declining sales and employment this study concentrates on the apparel industry since its economic challenges and opportunities differ from those of the textile industry the analysis employs a transcendental logarithmic cost function to investigate the presence of scale economies and the interrelationships among inputs of domestic capital labour and intermediate goods as well as outsourced intermediate products for the spanish apparel industry and discusses the implications for its future competitiveness and the demand for domestic inputs the results are consistent with diseconomies of scale or in the case of one model possibly constant returns to scale indicating that some contraction of the industry due to international competition will not raise unit costs all of the inputs except for capital and intermediate goods were found to be substitutes an important finding is that the

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

capitalization of exclusive agricultural zoning into farmland prices development in agricultural areas coughlin et al 1981 this exclusive agricultural zoning differs from traditional rural zoning in that it limits development and is often strictly enforced economists have argued that conceptually agricultural zoning lowers land values by restricting non farm development and three recent empirical studies support the hypothesis knaap 1985 vaillancourt and monty 1985 nelson 1988 but in fact economic theory predicts both positive and negative price effects distributed differentially among farmland parcels depending on parcel characteristics the purpose of this research is to test the hypothesis that the price effect of exclusive agricultural zoning varies with the characteristics of parcel subject to the regulations the research results suggest that economists investigating the land price effects of zoning should use methodologies that distinguish between positive and negative price effects deriving from parcel characteristics

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

is all domestic water consumption sensitive to price control this paper presents a model of residential water demand based on the stone geary utility function which explicitly considers a threshold of water that is insensitive to price and a quantity that can adapt instantaneously to price changes first the threshold is assumed constant being then allowed to vary according to past levels of consumption a proxy for households water using equipment and habits a measure of the depreciation rate of habits is derived and the effectiveness of price and non price conservation measures are compared the results provide useful policy recommendations for the studied case of seville spain

adaptation to land constraints is africa different since the seminal works of malthus and boserup scientists have long debated the impact of population growth and land constraints on the wellbeing of rural people today these concerns are particularly relevant to africa with its rapid population growth very small farms and chronic food insecurity in this paper we examine adaptation to falling land labor ratios using a comprehensive theoretical framework in which households faced with binding land constraints can respond in three ways intensifying agricultural production diversifying out of agriculture and reducing fertility rates using cross country data and drawing upon the existing literature we reach three conclusions first population density is associated with reduced fallows and more intensive use of land but not fertilizer use or irrigation indicating major challenges in achieving sustainable intensification or agricultural productivity growth second there is little evidence of successful non farm diversification in response to land pressures in africa from domestic or international income sources third rural africans in land constrained countries desire smaller families but have thus far benefited little from family planning policies these findings underscore the need for a coordinated multi sectoral approach to sustainably reduce poverty in the region

food and population d gale johnson and the green revolution during his distinguished career d gale johnson addressed food and population issues in a number of papers and books food and population issues were featured in both his 1997 ely lecture and in his 2000 presidential address to the american economic association on these occasions he made the following observations 1 plant and animal breeding programs in the agricultural experiment stations brought major changes to agriculture in the twentieth century in the first half of the twentieth century these programs produced important productivity gains in the industrialized developed countries with some achievements in sugar tea coffee and spices in tropical developing countries where both crop genetic improvement cgi and animal genetic improvement agi gains were achieved during the second half of the twentieth century particularly after 1965 cgi gains in developing countries produced a green revolution affecting most developing countries 2 the green revolution and related agricultural productivity gains prevented a malthusian outcome in global food markets in the wake of the major population expansion realized in virtually all developing countries after world war ii this malthusian outcome in the form of high food prices and land scarcity with attendant high land rents and prices did not occur in the increasingly globalized economy world prices of most agricultural crops in real terms declined after 1950 3 many developing countries particularly in africa however have not realized a green revolution these countries have also not achieved significant improvements in per capita income although virtually all developing countries have realized improvements in child mortality rates child malnutrition rates and life expectancy 4 esther boserup in work on africa suggested that increases in population density in rural areas were associated with changes in technology d gale johnson suggested that a political boserup effect was operative in many countries this boserup effect operated such that countries with low population densities invested little in cgi programs as population increased cgi investments increased in this article i will review green revolution evidence and relate this evidence to these observations the green revolution is somewhat arbitrarily dated from 1965 when high yielding or modern varieties mvs of both wheat and rice were first widely adopted in developing countries these mvs are associated with the first two international agricultural research centers iarcs the international rice research institute irri located in the philippines and the international center for the improvement of wheat and maize cimmyt located in mexico but plant breeding programs in some developing countries were relatively advanced for some crops before 1965 section i of the article discusses these pre green revolution developments section ii provides a descriptive overview of the production of mvs by region this overview emphasizes the diversity in rates of mv development by crop and relates this diversity to pre green revolution conditions section iii reports an empirical study of the impact of iarc germplasm in the form of second generation iarc crossed mvs and breeding lines on the productivity of national agricultural research system nars plant breeders the political boserup effect hypothesis is also tested in section iii section iv describes the adoption of mvs and reports estimates of the productivity impacts of the green revolution section v provides a brief comment on the fact that we have mass poverty in some countries in a world awash with grain the final section of the article summarizes the perspective that d gale johnson brought to the public science system serving agriculture in developing countries excerpt

estimating demand under block rates electricity and water many empirical studies of the demand for electricity under declining block tariffs have been conducted but few have produced results consistent with traditional demand theory nordin bell j economics 7 719 21 1976 explains this in part by pointing out that most of those studies failed to take into account the income effects caused by intramarginal price differences the authors show here that nordin s suggestion involves the inappropriate use of ordinal level statistics ols they propose a method by which consistent estimates of the demand parameters can be obtained when a household s rule for selecting a block can be estimated 19 references 1 figure

comparative advantage in manufacturing as a determinant of industrialization the korean case abstract this paper provides appropriate empirical evidence to test competing hypotheses regarding korean industrialization has korea followed the neoclassical path of comparative advantage or did korea anticipate comparative advantage by calculating revealed comparative advantage rca indexes of korean manufacturing sectors for 1965 1992 my empirical results support the hypotheses of blumenthal and amsden that korea gained dynamic comparative advantage by forcing capital intensive industry within a labor surplus economy the results also show however that comparative advantage of labor intensive industries should not be underestimated my results show that korea rapidly gained competitiveness in some heavy or medium industries through antineoclassical political behavior while it maintained competitiveness for a relatively long time in some light industries through neoclassical market behavior

an analysis of minimum frontage zoning to preserve lakefront amenities 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 gain by preserving environmental amenities amenity effect estimation of a hedonic price function for lakefront property in northern wisconsin quantifies these competing effects the estimation indicates that at the current margin the economic loss from the development effect is negligible and the economic gain from the amenity effect may be considerable raising frontage prices by an average of 21 5

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

an econometric estimation of industrial water demand in france this study investigates the structure of industrial water demand byestimating the derived demand for water on a sample of industrialestablishments located in the south west of france productiontechnologies are represented by short term variable cost functions andapproximated by a translog form industrial water use is modeled ashaving three components the quantity of water bought to a waterutility the quantity of autonomous water and the quantity of watertreated prior to use we include in this framework water effluents which are considered as a by product of the production process emittedby firms each of the three water components is treated as a separateinput and all are estimated as a system of simultaneous equations themodel is estimated on a sample of 51 industrial plants in the girondedistrict observed from 1994 to 1996 using seemingly unrelated regression sur and feasible generalized least squares fgls results ofestimations show that industrial firms are sensitive to water priceinputs network water elasticity is estimated at 0 29 it variesfrom 0 10 to 0 79 according to the type of industryconsidered autonomous water price elasticity is not significant elasticity for treated water is evaluated at 1 42 at themean sample and varies from 0 90 to 2 21 according to theindustry considered

growth controls real options and land development abstract many urban growth controls attempt to check sprawl by restricting allowable new housing densities however land may be undeveloped to preserve its real option value real options in land markets arise from uncertainty as to the optimum use of a site by limiting allowable development choices growth controls can narrow real options and potentially accelerate investment this paper examines the effect of price volatility a generator of option value on the timing of development after the imposition of an urban growth boundary ugb around seattle while the net effect of the ugb is to lower the likelihood of new housing outside the boundary by between 28 and 39 price volatility is no longer a deterrent to development

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

municipal water supply and sewage treatment costs prices and distortions municipal water supply and sewage treatment utilities in ontario canada are studied in order to establish their costs of supply and evaluate their pricing practices prices charged to residential and commercial customers are found to be only one third and one sixth of the estimated marginal cost for water supply and sewage treatment respectively for example the average price to residential customers is 0 32m superscript 3 while the estimated marginal cost is 0 87 m superscript 3 the estimated cost parameters are combined with estimated residential and nonresidential demands functions in order to calculate approximate welfare losses that arise from overconsumption

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

do zoning regulations rob rural landowners equity zoning regulations are land use control tools used to conserve resource land limit negative externalities from high density development and achieve agglomeration benefits from conserving large blocks of land however the passage of low density zoning is often challenged by landowners who claim that through it they lose their land s equity due to lower land values we investigate whether low density zoning impacts rural land value using arm s length sales in maryland s nine eastern shore counties using both a propensity score matching method and an instrumental variable approach we find that low density zoning has differentiated impacts resource parcels land values are unaffected and non resource parcels values decrease by 20 50

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

constructing confidence intervals using the bootstrap an application to a multi product cost function a multi product cost function system is estimated for 387 banks in states that allow branch banking the bootstrap resampling method is used to construct confidence intervals for marginal costs output cost elasticities economies of scale and scope and allen elasticities of substitution confidence intervals for these measures are usually constructed using a first order variance approximation under a normality assumption but such confidence intervals are inexact if the measures are not normally distributed or the variance approximations are imprecise we find that the bootstrap standard error estimates can differ significantly from the usual estimates furthermore we use the bootstrap to expand the analysis of cost function regularity properties copyright 1990 by mit press

scarcity rents for water a valuation and pricing model for most natural resources the existence of scarcity and the extent of the scarcity rent can be readily determined at least conceptually that portion of the resource price in excess of extraction costs signals scarcity and defines the value of the resource in situ drawing on hotelling s 1931 treatment heal 1976 pindyck 1978 and hanson 1980 among others have used various forms of this relationship to analyze efficient extraction and consumption of natural resources given clear ownership no externalities and the existence of viable markets competitive market processes will establish the efficient level of this rent and thus the efficient time path of extraction and consumption in the absence of clear ownership rights and markets however scarcity value frequently goes unrecognized water resources provide an important example of this phenomenon given the growing apparent shortages in both urban and agricultural uses government agencies typically own the resource or otherwise have free access to it and need only cover extraction treatment and distribution costs ignoring scarcity rents in water pricing means that water prices are too low thereby inducing excessive extraction capacity investment and consumption even if water utilities were aware of the concept and importance of scarcity rent the absence of marketdetermined water prices makes the valuation of scarcity rents very difficult most water supply utilities obtain water from sources that have a recognized finite capacity this occurs where the withdrawal rates exceed the current rate of recharge a similar situation exists when utilities approach their legal entitlement to some given water source such as california water authorities now face with respect to their colorado river rights the anticipated higher cost for water implies a scarcity rent howe 1979 78ff on use of existing cheaper water sources today the usual lack of markets in water makes this rent implicit but it exists just as with oil or diamonds or any scarce natural resource this c st is completely distinct from outlays for exploration development transmission treatment and distribution which as out ofpocket costs readily become embedded in conventional water prices scarcity rent could arise with or without economies or diseconomies of scale in extraction or distribution it

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

the value of free water analyzing south africa s free basic water policy this paper analyzes south africa s free basic water policy under which households receive a free water allowance equal to the world health organization s recommended minimum of 6 kiloliters per month i structurally estimate residential water demand evaluate the welfare eects of free water and provide optimal price schedules derived from a social planner s problem i use a unique dataset of monthly metered billing data for 60 000 households for 2002 2008 from a particularly disadvantaged suburb of pretoria the dataset contains rich price variation across 18 dierent nonlinear tarischedules and includes a policy experiment which removed the free allowance i nd that without government subsidy the mean monthly consumption would decrease from 12 6 to 5 6 kiloliters which is below the clean water consumption recommended by the who however it is possible to reallocate the current subsidy to form an optimal tari without a free allowance which would increase welfare while leaving the water provider s revenue unchanged this optimal tariwould also reduce the number of households consuming below the who recommended level

residential water demand responds asymmetrically to rising and falling prices this paper econometrically estimates residential water consumption in germany between 2007 and 2013 based on a panel of almost 3000 supply areas in particular the analysis distinguishes periods o

measuring the dynamic efficiency costs of regulators preferences municipal water utilities in the arid west evidence suggests that municipal water utility administrators in the western us price water significantly below its marginal cost and in so doing inefficiently exploit aquifer stocks and induce social surplus losses this paper empirically identifies the objective function of those managers measures the deadweight losses resulting from their price discounting decisions and recovers the efficient water pricing policy function from counterfactual experiments in doing so the estimation uses a continuous butconstrained control version of a nested fixed point algorithm in order to measure the important intertemporal consequences of groundwater pricing decisions

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

household responses to increased water rates during the california drought this paper explores the use of fixed effects and maximum likelihood techniques to es timate household responses to water price in creases during the california drought estimates are based on bimonthly meter readings from 599 single family households in the alameda county water district over the period 1982 1992 before and after the introduction of a steeply increasing block rate price structure i find that household and monthly fixed effects models are not success ful in modeling water demand with these data however maximum likelihood models that ex plicitly consider the household s response to the rate structure result in plausible estimates of wa ter demand jel q25

analysing rationing policies drought and its effects on urban users welfare analysing rationing policies during drought the aim of this paper is to study the impact on consumers of rationing policies implemented during water shortages water scarcity gives rise to the need for rationing and various methods including supply cutoffs can be used a model is devised to quantify the welfare losses associated with qualitive and quantitive restrictions based on virtual prices and using the consumer surplus as a welfare measurement welfare variations for different users have been calculated to achieve the aim information relative to seville spain has been used analysing the drought period that took place in the first half of the 1990s it has been possible to observe the main source that led to welfare losses for each kind of user

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

the qualitative economics of development control abstract this paper examines space supply restrictions and containment policies in the context of a monocentric urban model with several classes results are obtained concerning the qualitative effects of such policies on space i e land values and locations of the various groups

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

residential water demand in the northwest of spain a panel of monthly aggregate data from the northwest of spain is used to estimate domestic water demand functions under linear and non linear tariffs price billing climatic and sociodemographic variables are used as explanatory variables the use of intraannual data constitutes a relevant contribution in the european context overall marginal price elasticity estimates lie between 0 12 and 0 17 summer only elasticities and elasticities associated with uses beyond the effectively free allowances seem significantly higher climatic variables significantly affect monthly use although probably less than in other wealthier and drier areas domestic water use appears to be a normal good

the impact of unionization on motor carrier costs i introduction the increasingly competitive markets fostered by the motor carrier act of 1980 have forced motor carriers to focus on cost saving strategies intended to reduce operating miles fuel consumption and capital and labor expenses there are two reasons unions firms may be at a competitive disadvantage in these efforts first although the union nonunion wage differential has decreased following regulatory reform rose 1987 and hirsch 1988 find that union firms still pay higher wages second managers of unionized firms may have less flexibility in the use of inputs since union work rules restrict the activities and substitutability of drivers terminal workers and terminal facilities indeed harrington 1987 reports that post 1980 trucking expenses are still 40 higher for unionized motor carriers than for nonunion firms unionization may affect carrier cost both by increasing the price of labor and by potentially affecting cost function parameters if union rules make labor less productive the entire cost function will shift upwards for a given set of factor input prices further freeman and medoff 1982 argue that work rules may be expected to result in reduced elasticities of substitution between labor and other inputs in the unionized setting indeed they find that substitution between production labor and other labor in manufacturing is generally lower in unionized settings the impact of unionization on production has been investigated in industries such as construction coal mining hospitals and the cement industry by allen 1984 1986a 1986b byrnes et al 1988 and clark 1980a 1980b the results have been inconclusive with unionized firms being more productive than nonunion firms in some instances and less productive in others studies such as allen 1986c and addison and hirsch 1989 have utilized production function methodologies that use restrictive functional forms which impose homogeneity and identical elasticities of substitution between pairs of inputs allen 1986c examines the relative efficiency of union and nonunion firms with a translog cost function allowing for union effects using intercept and slope parameters that vary by union status in his study of different types of construction projects he finds significant differences between the cost functions for union and nonunion firms but no evidence of the inelasticity of factor substitutions as hypothesized by medoff and freeman in fact his estimates of factor demand elasticities show no discernible pattern for union versus nonunion firms leading him to conclude that work rules do not have the anticipated impact on elasticity the purpose of this study is to test whether unionization impacts motor carrier costs and if so to determine the direction of the impact of particular interest is whether the work rules imposed by the teamster s union have had a significant impact on factor substitutability in unionized firms as argued by freeman and medoff 1982 friedlaender and spady 1981 daughety et al 1985 mcmullen and stanley 1988 grimm et al 1989 and ying s 1990 studies of motor carrier industry costs have used translog cost functions which implicitly assume that union and nonunion cost functions arise from the same production technology this is equivalent to accepting the hypothesis that unionization does not affect the production structure of motor carrier firms if unionization does affect a firm s production process the results from these studies could be biased accordingly this study uses a translog cost function to test for differences in the cost structure of union and nonunion carriers not only is the translog cost function standard in the motor carrier literature permitting comparison of these results with those of previous work it also allows the flexibility necessary to examine the differential impact of unions on cost function parameters and elasticities of substitution between factors