In recent years the arid North East of China, and in particular Beijing, has suffered sporadic shortages of water. The causes of these events are manifold and like most manifestations of scarcity, water scarcity has important demand and supply side elements. Although on the supply side drought events have contributed to water shortages in the past few years, it is the nature of water demand that presents perhaps the most important determinant of water scarcity in Beijing. On the one hand, as a downstream user, surface water supplies to Beijing have been reduced by increased demands, largely from agriculture, in upstream areas of the Chao River (Hou, 2001). On the other hand, unprecedented economic growth and rural-to-urban migration in China as a whole means that urban water demand has increased both as the populous increases and as households become wealthier.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Banks, J., Blundell, R., and Weber. (1997). A quadratic almost ideal demand system. Econometrica.
Billings, R. B., and Agthe, D. E. (1980). Price elasticities for water: a case of increasing block rates. Land Economics, 56(1): 73–84.
Billings, R. (1982). Specification of block rate price variable in demand models. Land Economics, 58(3): 386–393.
Cavanagh, S.M., Hanemann, W.M., and Stavins, R.N. (2001). Muffled price signals: household water demand under increasing-block prices. FEEM Working Paper No. 40.2002.
CIDA Funded Project Team (1999). Report on urban household water use pilot survey in Beijing and Tianjin, Sustainable Water Resources Management in Beijing and Tianjin Region Water Demand Estimation. The centre for human settlements, University of British Columbia.
CCICED (2002). Implementing the Natural Forest Protection Programme and the Sloping Land Conversion Program: Lessons and Policy Recommendations. CCICED taskforce on forests and grasslands. China Forestry Publishing House.
Dalhuisen, J.M., Florax, R.J.G.M., Groot, H.L.F., and Nijkamp, P. (2001). Price and income elasticities of residential water demand. Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper. TI 2001–057/3.
Deaton, A. and Muellbauer. (1980). An almost ideal demand system. Econometrica.
Economy, E. (1997). Environmental Scarcities, State Capacity, and Civil Violence: The Case of China. (Part of the State Capacity project of the Toronto group, Homer-Dixon et al.).
Espey, M., Espey, J., and Shaw, W.D. (1997). Price elasticity of residential demand for water: a meta-analysis. Water Resources Research 33(6): 1369–1374.
Gibson, J., Huang, J., and Rozelle S. (2003). Improving estimates of Inequality and poverty from urban China’s household income and expenditure survey. Review of Income and Wealth. 49(1): 53–68.
Herrington, P. (1995). Pricing water properly, en O’Riordan, T. Ecotaxation, 263: 286. Earthscan, London.
Höglund, L. (1999). Household demand for water in Sweden with implications of a potential tax on water use. Water Resources Research, 35(12): 3853–3863, 1999.
Hou, E. (2001). Nine Dragons, One River: The Role of Institutions in Developing Water Pricing Policy in Beijing, PRC. Full text documents. 3x3 Beijing Tianjin Water Resources Management Project, The centre for human settlements, University of British Columbia.
Hou, E., and Hunter, G. (1998). Beijing Water: Causes, Effects, Solutions. Full text documents. 3x3 Beijing Tianjin Water Resources Management Project. The centre for human settlements, University of British Columbia.
Hsiao, C. (2003). Analysis of Panel Data. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Koundouri, P., Pashardes, P., and Hadjispirou, S. (2002). Equity and efficiency in water pricing: the case of Cyprus. Environment and Development Economics.
Lu Xiao-yan, Xu Fu-Liu, Shu Tao, Dawson, R. W., Gang Li Ben, Cao Jun, Leaf, M., and Hou Eve (2000). Current situation, defects and future suggestions of institutional framework for water resources management in China. Peking University Working paper.
MartÃnez-Espiñeira, R. (2002). Estimating Water Demand under Increasing Block tariffs Using Aggregate Data and Proportions of Users per Block. Environmental and Resource Economics, 26: 5–23, 2003.
Moffitt, R. (1986). The econometrics of piecewise-linear budget constraints: A survey and exposition of the Maximum Likelihood Method. Journal of Business & Economics Statistics, July 1986, 4(3): 317–328.
Nieswiadomy, M.L. and Molina, D.J. (1991). A note on price perception in water demand models. Land Economics 67(3): 352–359.
Nordin, J. (1976). A proposed modification on Taylor’s demand supply analysis: comment. Bell Journal of Economic Management and Science, 7(2): 719–721.
OECD, (1999b). Household water pricing in OECD countries. OECD, Paris, unclassified document ENV/EPOC/GEEI(98) 12/FINAL.
Planning Report (2001). Sustainable Utilization Planning of Capital Water Resource in the Early Stage of the 21st Century (2001–2005). Government of China.
Seery, M. (1996). Distributional impact of water pricing. Equity and the Environment.
Smith, S. and Rajah, N. (1993). Distributional aspects of household water charges. Fiscal Studies, 14(3): 86–108.
Sterner, T. (2003). Policy Instruments for Environmental and Natural Resource Management. Resources for the Future. Washington DC.
US Water News (2004). Water Hikes Expected in Beijing. US water News online, June. Article can be found at:.
Whittington, D. and Boland, B. (2000). The political economy of Increasing block tariffs. Ch 10 in Dinar (2000) the political economy of water pricing.
Whittington, D. (2002). Municipal Water Pricing and Tariff Design: A Reform Agenda for cities in Developing countries. Resources for the Future.
World Bank (1997). Water pricing experiences: An international perspective.
Xinhuanet (2004). www.xinhuanet.com, 2004–06–16.
Yan P., and Stover, J. (1999). Water pricing issues and potential legal reforms in China. Sinosphere 2(4).
Yatchew. (1998). Non and semi-parametric estimation techniques: A review. Journal of Economic Surveys.
Yepes, G. (1999). Do Cross-subsidies help the poor to benefit from water and wastewater services Lessons from Guayaquil. World Bank.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer Science + Business Media B.V
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Groom, B., Liu, X., Swanson, T., Zhang, S. (2008). Resource Pricing and Poverty Alleviation: The Case of Block Tariffs for Water in Beijing. In: Koundouri, P. (eds) Coping with Water Deficiency. Environment & Policy, vol 48. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6615-3_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6615-3_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-6614-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-6615-3
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)