Premium
Whose Values Count? Demand Management for Melbourne's Water*
Author(s) -
EDWARDS GEOFF
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
economic record
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.365
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1475-4932
pISSN - 0013-0249
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4932.2006.00332.x
Subject(s) - tariff , inefficiency , equity (law) , block (permutation group theory) , economics , microeconomics , business , international economics , mathematics , political science , geometry , law
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.