Abstract

ALMENDAREZ-HERNANDEZ, Marco Antonio; AVILES POLANCO, Gerzaín  and  BELTRAN MORALES, Luis Felipe. Water demand of commercial use for El Vizcaino biosphere reserve, Mexico: Panel data estimation. Nova scientia [online]. 2015, vol.7, n.15, pp.553-576. ISSN 2007-0705.

Most of the literature about urban water demand has focused on estimating the determinants of the water demand for domestic use and there is little empirical evidence on the water demand for commercial use (Worthington, 2010). The analysis has focused on urban areas and not on protected areas, particularly in arid regions. Water resources are fundamental to the development of productive activities input, generating added value and the amount of supplies needed by the staff working in the commercial sector. In addition, the agencies responsible for the provision of drinking water and sewerage face serious economic problems such as nonpayment by the users benefited; the meters are insufficient to accurately measure water supply, resulting in a lower billing to water utilities and a restriction on controlling demand. This situation deserves further treatment applied. This paper aims to analyze the response of commercial water consumers to changes in prices in the short and long run. It also measures the effect of nonpayment, the proportion of users with meter and other variables such as average temperature and precipitation on the level of consumption. A dynamic water demand function specifying the average price was estimated using panel data. The results indicate that the price negatively impacts the consumer with a low magnitude. The price elasticity of short and long run were less than one, with -0.07 and -0.18, respectively. Temperature elasticity was 0.09, the semi-elasticity of nonpayment was 0.20 and the ratio of users who have meters was 0.23.

Keywords : natural protected area; panel data; metering; nonpayment; average price.

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