Managing a scarce resource in a growing Asian economy: Water usage in Hong Kong

Chi-Keung WOO, Wing Keung WONG*, Ira Horowitz, Hing Lin CHAN

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

    7 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    An econometric analysis of Hong Kong's monthly per capita water usage for the 25-year period of April 1985 through March 2010 reveals that per capita usage is insensitive to price but dependent upon past usage, per capita income, weather, and seasonal factors, with rising income countering what would otherwise be a downward trend. Given Hong Kong's current inflationary environment and large government budget surplus, these findings affirm the Hong Kong Water Supplies Department's adopted strategy of total water management towards sustainable use of water resources, in lieu of either periodic service interruption or price increases as policy instruments.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)374-382
    Number of pages9
    JournalJournal of Asian Economics
    Volume23
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Aug 2012

    Scopus Subject Areas

    • Finance
    • Economics and Econometrics

    User-Defined Keywords

    • Demand-side management
    • Hong Kong
    • Partial-adjustment regression model
    • Price elasticity
    • Water-usage elasticity

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