Improved source,improved quality? Demand for drinking water quality in rural India

This paper tests the hypothesis that the expansion of improved drinking water supplies in rural India reduced household expenditure on water quality, offsetting some of the quality benefits from source protection. I estimate demand for in-home treatment using geological characteristics to predict a household's drinking water source. The probability of treatment and in particular boiling reduces by 18–27 percentage points in response to source protection, offsetting 4% of the water quality gains and saving households 0.5–1% in monthly expenditure. Behavioral choices partly counteract the water quality gains from source protection.     

我国生态保护与建设支出账户框架构建研究

生态保护与建设是我国生态文明建设的重要任务,生态保护与建设支出账户核算是环境经济核算的重要内容,但我国目前尚未开展系统的生态保护与建设支出核算。本文首先梳理了生态保护与建设支出核算的国际经验,指出我国生态保护与建设支出账户核算面临统计口径不完善、统计体系尚未建立、统计主体和对象仍不完整、统计数据呈部门化和分散化等问题。在此基础上,本文从生态保护与建设支出主体、支出分类、支出资金来源等方面初步构建了支出账户核算体系,并以2013年为例进行了初步估算。结果表明,我国财政资金用于生态保护与建设的支出总量不足,仅占当年GDP的0.25%。为推动生态保护与建设支出账户核算工作,建议应从预算科目、统计口径、统计主体、统计对象等方面不断完善生态保护与建设统计体系,加快推进生态保护与建设支出账户的构建与核算,并争取尽快纳入国民经济核算体系,以推进生态文明体制改革与制度建设的进程,促进我国生态保护与经济社会的协调发展。     

Re-examining the water affordability: A comparison of alternative measures

Water affordability is determined by the percentage of income households that must allocate to municipal water services, while factoring in essential or basic needs water use. With the rise in water prices reported in most areas of the country along with somewhat stagnant income growth—a combination that suggests ceteris paribus—more of a household's disposable income is being spent on water services. This paper adds to the discussion in three ways. First, given the lack of a consistent definition for “affordability” and the subjective connotation associated with such a term, we develop and compare five different water expenditure ratios, including two different measures of water for essential needs, as well as measures for indoor, efficient, and actual water use. Second, because of the granularity of our data, we illustrate how such “affordability” measures can vary significantly within a water district and thus highlight how using district- or county-level income measures can mask the degree to which affordability is an issue for households living in low-income block groups. Our results indicate that the choice of income measure and type of water service use can influence affordability measures substantially.