Seminar

Tafesse Gezahegn: Welfare Effects of Marginal-Cost Water Pricing

A recently published work by Gezahegn and Zhu (2017) estimates the marginal cost (MC) of residential water supply in the Ethiopian city of Mekelle. Drawing upon the economic notion that efficient pricing is equivalent to MC-pricing, the present article aims at estimating the potential welfare effects of a shift from the current increasing block rate structure to a uniform price equal to the estimated MC.

Organised by Development Economics
Date

Thu 21 December 2017 12:30 to 13:30

Venue Leeuwenborch, building number 201
Hollandseweg 1
201
6706 KN Wageningen
+31 (0)317 48 36 39
Room C82

Evidence from Mekelle City, Ethiopia

The welfare analysis makes use of MC and MB (marginal benefit) curves to simulate the potential impact of the price reform on consumer surplus, revenue, cost savings and water conservation. Findings show that society (the average household and the water utility in Mekelle) would enjoy a net benefit of 0.002 birr (birr = Ethiopian currency: 1 birr  0.05 USD) per month as a result of MC-pricing.