Has the tiered water pricing system produced water-saving effects?New evidence from Hangzhou
Based on the specific practice of the reform of the tiered water pricing system and the design idea of segmented constraint utility function,an empirical study of the water-saving effect of the tiered water pricing system is carried out by using panel data on the tiered water pricing and household water consumption in Hangzhou from 2012 to 2022. The results of the benchmark regression show that there is a significant water saving effect of the tiered water pricing system on the whole,and classification tests show that the first-tier water pricing produces a significant water-saving effect within the total effects,while neither the second-tier nor the third-tier water pricing produces a significant water saving effect. And the robustness of the results is confirmed by multiple fixed-effect analysis,placebo tests with random sampling and endogeneity tests. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the tiered water pricing system is differentiated among households with different scales of water consumption and different regions. The quantile regression shows that the water pricing produces a water-saving effect at the 0.75 quantile of the total sample,but the cross effect with the Thousand Island Lake Water Distribution Project produces a water use promotion effect. The findings of the study indicate that the tiered water pricing system for residents in Hangzhou has produced a certain water-saving effect,but it has not yet fully played a water-saving role. This study provides empirical evidence from Hangzhou for the reform of water pricing mechanisms and proposes recommendations for further optimizing the tiered water pricing system.
tiered water pricing systemwater-saving effectssegmentation constraint utility functionThousand Island Lake Water Distribution ProjectHangzhou
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
