An Institutional Economics Perspective: The Impact of Water Provider Privatisation on Water Conservation in England and Australia
2011
Barrett, Greg | Wallace, Margaret
In the context of the world-wide trend towards the privatisation of water supplies, this article uses institutional economics to examine the incentives for English and Australian water providers to implement strategies to reduce household water consumption. The authors hypothesise that the effective marketing of reduced domestic water consumption is likely to be strengthened by the extent of government control over water providers. This hypothesis is examined using a case study of ten English water companies (all privately owned and subject to identical government regulation) and ten Australian water utilities (with varying degrees of government ownership and regulation), focusing on their promotion of home retrofitting with water-efficient technology. The examination supports the hypothesis, leading to the conclusion that significant government control of water utilities is necessary to curb domestic water consumption.
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