摘要:The pricing of many public services varies with the change of use, often even during the day, as the level of cost is influenced by the timing of the activity. This linkage also comes out for the water provision operated by an irrigation Consortium in typical Mediterranean conditions. The relationship is verified by estimating a translog cost function of the water supply, which includes the standard Gini index for indicating whether the water provision is concentrated in a few months, or is distributed throughout the year. The results, which depend on the general condition of under-utilization of the water distribution structures, show that average costs are lowered when the irrigation activity, and water supply, is concentrated in time. This suggests changing the pricing for the irrigation service by increasing the payments outside the peak demand periods. This differentiation is related to the effects of management choices of the farms, which influence the timing of irrigation and, therefore, of the water provision. In this way, it would be consistent to the guidelines of the WFD (2000/60), which calls for attributing the costs to those who actually determine them.
其他摘要:The pricing of many public services varies with the change of use, often even during the day, as the level of cost is influenced by the timing of the activity. This linkage also comes out for the water provision operated by an irrigation Consortium in typical Mediterranean conditions. The relationship is verified by estimating a translog cost function of the water supply, which includes the standard Gini index for indicating whether the water provision is concentrated in a few months, or is distributed throughout the year. The results, which depend on the general condition of under-utilization of the water distribution structures, show that average costs are lowered when the irrigation activity, and water supply, is concentrated in time. This suggests changing the pricing for the irrigation service by increasing the payments outside the peak demand periods. This differentiation is related to the effects of management choices of the farms, which influence the timing of irrigation and, therefore, of the water provision. In this way, it would be consistent to the guidelines of the WFD (2000/60), which calls for attributing the costs to those who actually determine them.