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THE POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF RESIDENTIAL CONSUMERS ON WATER RATES 1
Author(s) -
Mann Patrick
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
jawra journal of the american water resources association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.957
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1752-1688
pISSN - 1093-474X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-1688.1973.tb05823.x
Subject(s) - politics , linkage (software) , water utility , economics , product (mathematics) , public economics , imperfect , sample (material) , process (computing) , environmental economics , business , water supply , natural resource economics , microeconomics , environmental science , environmental engineering , political science , biochemistry , chemistry , geometry , mathematics , linguistics , philosophy , chromatography , computer science , law , gene , operating system
The regulatory process such as that for water rates can be viewed as a bargaining process between regulators, utility management, and consumers. This bargaining process involves both political and economic influences. In an attempt to empirically verify that utility rates are a product of both economic and political factors, a sample of publicly‐owned water utilities was subjected to regression analysis. As expected, cost and cost‐related factors were positive and significant determinants of residential water rates. Using an admittedly imperfect measure of residential user political influence, there was evidence that increased political activity results in lower water rates. Furthermore, the political influence and water rate linkage is more evident in small water utilities than in larger suppliers.