A meta-analysis of residential water demand studies

Although widely studied, the residential water demand remains a controversial issue. The purpose of the current study is to investigate systematic variations across related studies using meta-analysis approach. Particularly, a meta-analytical regression is performed to assess the sensitivity of the price, income and household size elasticities to a number of characteristics including demand specification, data characteristics, price specification, tariff structure, functional form, estimation technique and location of demand. The empirical results of the study reveal that these characteristics have differing influence on the reported elasticities. Obviously, these findings lie in their importance for regulators and policy makers and for academics alike. Among others, two important conclusions emerge. First, water use in summer and winter seasons and water use for indoor and outdoor purposes are found to be important factors affecting the price elasticity. This suggests that peak-load water pricing may be an effective tool for managing water demand. Second, the three elasticities tend to be differently estimated across various regions of the world as well as between developed and developing countries. Therefore, decision makers in a given country would not rely on the findings of studies conducted on other countries in formulating their policies.     

Bridging the Maghreb’s water gap: from rationalizing the virtual water trade to enhancing the renewable energy desalination

The debate about the water resources shortages and finding appropriate solutions to close the water gap in many regions is still not finished. The Mediterranean region is among the most arid regions in the world and hosts more than the half of the world’s water-poor population. The situation is more severe in the southern shore of the Mediterranean, in particular, the Maghreb countries. In this region, water resources are very limited and polluted and most countries rely on groundwater yet overexploited. On the other hand, several factors, including rapid economic growth, expanding populations and changing climate, are driving up demand for water. This pushes forward the Maghreb countries to more and more rely on non-conventional and costly water resources such as wastewater treatment and desalination. Obviously, this bears a heavy burden on the economic growth within these countries. In this paper, rationalizing the virtual water trade and enhancing desalination using renewable energy are presented as two promising options to bridging the Maghreb’s water gap.     

Testing the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for water footprint indicator: a cross-sectional study

The water footprint analysis has become a rapidly growing field of research although little attention has been paid to its relationship with economic growth. Using the available cross-section data, this study examines how the per capita water footprint varies as a function of per capita income within the environmental Kuznets curve framework at both aggregated and disaggregated level of water footprint. In addition, the issue of omitted variables is investigated by incorporating a number of control variables. Estimation results show no evidence in favour of an inverted-U environmental Kuznets curve, but they yield, in most cases, an evolution into an N-shaped relationship. This means that water footprint rises in the beginning with incomes, then falls as nations grow wealthier to rise again at very high income levels. This calls into question the traditional economic view of income growth sustainability as it applies to water.