Whose Values Count? Demand Management for Melbourne's Water

• GEOFF EDWARDS ^[1]
  1. [1] La Trobe University

     La Trobe University

     Australia

     
• Localización: Economic record, ISSN 0013-0249, Vol. 82, Nº. 0, 2006, págs. 54-63
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • An assessment is provided of Melbourne's rising block tariff for water and its prescriptive regulation of water use through non-price restrictions. The three-step rising block tariff fares poorly on economic efficiency and on widely used notions of equity. A two-block tariff could remove much of the inefficiency in a three-block tariff, but one-price-for-all water would be the most efficient way to ration water on conventional definitions. The non-price restrictions on water use are prescriptive, denying households the opportunity to decide how to make any cuts in water use required of them. State values usurp private values.