Evaluating the effect of conservation motivations on residential water demand.
Utilities and water suppliers in the southwestern United States have used education and conservation programs over the past two decades in an attempt to ameliorate the pressures of increasing water scarcity. This paper builds on a long history of water demand and environmental psychology literature and attempts to answer a simple question: do households primarily motivated by environmental and social (E&S) considerations consume water differently than households motivated primarily by cost and convenience (C&C)? We find that E&S consumers use less water than C&C consumers on average. We also find that there is no statistical difference between E&S and C&C consumers in their consumption responses to changing prices, temperature, and precipitation. This implies that targeting future conservation efforts to self-reported consumer groups may not improve policy effectiveness.
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado State University, 400 Isotope Drive, Fort Collins, CO, 80521, USA. Electronic address: alexander.s.maas@gmail.com.
Alexander
A
Maas
Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University, 1200 Center Ave. Mall, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA.
Christopher
C
Goemans
Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University, 1200 Center Ave. Mall, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA.
Dale
D
Manning
Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University, 1200 Center Ave. Mall, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA.
Stephan
S
Kroll
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado State University, 400 Isotope Drive, Fort Collins, CO, 80521, USA.
Mazdak
M
Arabi
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado State University, 400 Isotope Drive, Fort Collins, CO, 80521, USA.
Mariana
M
Rodriguez-McGoffin
D003132:Commerce; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D009042:Motivation; D014867:Water; D014881:Water Supply
D014867:Water
Conservation attitudes; Residential water demand; Water management; Water use motivations