Determinants of Residential Water Conservation: The Case of Salt Lake City Utah

This study evaluates the effectiveness of demand-side water conservation policies in Salt Lake City, Utah for the years 1999 to 2002. We add to the existing residential water demand literature by exploring panel estim ation techniques with disaggregated household level data. Alternative policies used to induce water conservation are di scussed based on estimates of demand schedule parameters. We find that public conservation .campaigns have had negli gible impacts on the city\u27s water use. There have been, however, statistically significant reductions in consumption due to price changes despite minimal price increases. Our findings should enable local and state policymakers to better assess the tradeoffs of alternative conservation programs