1887

OECD Environment Working Papers

This series is designed to make available to a wider readership selected studies on environmental issues prepared for use within the OECD. Authorship is usually collective, but principal authors are named. The papers are generally available only in their original language English or French with a summary in the other if available.

English

Greening Household Behaviour and Water

This report focuses on households’ behaviour in relation to water use. It presents the results of follow-up analysis of the 2011 OECD Survey on Environmental Policy and Individual Behaviour Change (EPIC) where econometric techniques are applied. This report complements the overview of the survey data provided in the publication OECD (2014). The analysis shows that households whose bill depends on actual water use are unambiguously more likely to exhibit pro-environmental behaviours in terms of water use, including undertaking water-saving behaviours, purchasing water-efficient devices, and taking water efficiency into account when purchasing such equipment. The results also confirm that the effect of social norms, attitudes, and opinions about the environment in general do matter in explaining households’ behaviour and investment decisions. The main policy recommendations that can be derived from this study are: to charge households for water based on their actual water use and to pursue individuals’ sensitisation to environmental issues by promoting water-conservation behaviours through campaigns and advertising, primarily targeting male and young adults.

English

Keywords: household survey, tap water, labelling, water-saving behaviour, environmental attitudes, water quality, investment in water-efficient devices
JEL: D11: Microeconomics / Household Behavior and Family Economics / Consumer Economics: Theory; Q25: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Renewable Resources and Conservation / Renewable Resources and Conservation: Water; D12: Microeconomics / Household Behavior and Family Economics / Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis; C51: Mathematical and Quantitative Methods / Econometric Modeling / Model Construction and Estimation; Q58: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Environmental Economics / Environmental Economics: Government Policy
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