The role and application of social marketing in managing water consumption: a case study

• Water shortages are an increasingly significant social and economic issue in many countries. Increasing the supply of water is one solution (e.g. desalination plants, new dams), but such measures are expensive. Using price to manage household water demand may be viewed as socially unequitable and politically contentious. Social marketing campaigns, where voluntary behaviour change is the goal, provide the potential to foster sustainable consumption of an increasingly scarce yet essential resource. This paper details a case study of successful water demand management in a drought affected region of South‐Eastern Australia. In this region, water consumption was reduced to more sustainable levels through a targeted and successful social marketing campaign. This case is of significant relevance to the field of Social Marketing where there are increasing calls for research into environmental issues in general and water consumption in particular (Kotler, 2011). The extant research literature and this case study are integrated to form several propositions about household water consumption behaviour. Consequently, this paper contributes to the literature by providing a conceptualisation of how residents respond to water conservation related social marketing campaigns. Key issues include the potential for reciprocal behaviour by consumers when a water authority is perceived to manage the water problem effectively, and linking behaviour change through structural approaches (e.g. subsidies and restrictions) and voluntarist approaches (e.g. attitudinal change).

Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Water sources and demand in South Western Nigeria: implications for water development planners and scientists

In-depth interviews and personal observations were conducted with 5000 households each in four cities (Lagos, Ibadan, Ife and Ilesa) in South Western Nigeria concerning their household water supply system, water use practices and water demand. Owing to deficiencies in piped water availability, households invest in coping strategies in the form of alternative supplies and storage facilities to supplement piped water.This study revealed that about 30% of respondents have a private piped water connection. Even then, the tap water is available only three times a week on average. This has forced people in the area to invest heavily in the provision of storage tanks of various (up to 5000 litres) capacities for storing tap or rainwater wherever it is available and in the construction of both shallow and deep wells. The computed per capital per day water demand for the study area is about 46 litres. The “coping” strategies have important economic implications for the consumers and thus modelling of water demand should go beyond connection decision. The choice of any particular system for a given usage depends on the perceived attributes of the system. The implications of the results for water planners and water demand modellers are presented in this paper.     

ANALYSING IMPLICATIONS OF LIMITED WATER AVAILABILITY FOR GREAT BARRIER REEF CATCHMENTS

Dependence on water is one of the factors that can determine regional vulnerability in Australia. Climate change is predicted to change rainfall patterns in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) region, and scarce water resources have the potential to make regional Queensland economies increasingly vulnerable. Understanding which economic sectors depend on water as an input factor helps in understanding sectoral and regional vulnerability, and thus in guiding regional policy aimed at structural change. Using a regional Queensland Input–Output (IO) model, this paper integrates water consumption of the GBR region and then compares monetary IO multipliers with water consumption multipliers. We argue that these IO multipliers can inform regional decision makers about potential future regional vulnerability by taking into account limited water resources.     

Technical Change in the Private Consumption Converter

The analysis of technological change is centered on the study of the evolution of technical coefficients in the input–output table. Complementary to this analysis, the household consumption expenditure matrix, relating consumption by commodities to consumption by purpose or by function, also incorporates some other aspects of technological change. Thus, the evolution in time of the coefficients of this consumption expenditure matrix will portray technological processes, implying substitutions between commodities to satisfy the different functions The substitution between consumption expenditure by functions is also to be taken into consideration, because it can influence, together with technological change, the use of commodities in the final demand. For Switzerland, a 1980–89 time series of household consumption expenditure matrices with 37 commodities and 58 functional consumption categories has been estimated using data from consumer expenditure surveys. In this paper, instruments generally applied to the analysis of changes in input–output technical coefficients are extended to these matrices, including methods that deal with biproportional processes of substitution.     

The value of scarce water: Measuring the inefficiency of municipal regulations

Rather than allowing urban water prices to reflect scarcity rents during periods of drought-induced excess demand, policy makers have mandated command-and-control approaches, primarily rationing the use of water outdoors. While such policies are ubiquitous and likely inefficient, economists have not had access to sufficient data to estimate their economic impact. Using unique panel data on residential end-uses of water in 11 North American cities, we examine the welfare implications of urban water rationing in response to drought. Using estimates of expected marginal prices that vary both across and within markets, we estimate price elasticities specific to indoor and outdoor water use. Our results suggest that current policies do target water uses that households, themselves, are most willing to forgo. Nevertheless, we find that rationing outdoor water in cities has costly welfare implications, primarily due to household heterogeneity in willingness-to-pay for scarce water. We find that replacing rationing policies with a market-clearing “drought price” would result in welfare gains of more than 29% of what households in the sample spend each year on water.     

安徽省城镇居民收入与消费结构的关联分析

采用灰色关联分析方法对安徽省2001~2006年间城镇居民收入和消费结构的关系进行了量化分析,得出了收入对各项消费支出的影响程度,从大到小依次是:居住、衣着、食品、文教娱乐、交通通讯、其他商品、医疗保健、家庭设备用品及服务。又运用灰色预测方法对2007~2011年间的收入水平和各项消费支出进行了预测,并且对预测值进行了灰色关联分析,得出了收入对各项消费支出的影响程度,从大到小依次是:医疗保健、衣着、交通通讯、食品、居住、文教娱乐、家庭设备、其他商品及服务。最后,针对消费结构的升级提出建议。     

The asymmetric behavior of household consumption under the business cycle

In this study, we examine whether and to what extent the pattern of household consumption is asymmetrically sensitive to economic changes. We use a threshold model with error correction to characterize household consumption under the business cycle. Using data from the 1979–2014 Survey of Family Income and Expenditure in Taiwan, we find that household consumption has pro-cyclical characteristics during the business cycle. More importantly, household consumption responds asymmetrically to economic fluctuations such that changes in consumption tend to be larger during expansions than during downturns. Furthermore, the nature of this asymmetry differs across household income quantiles.     

广西大石山区人饮干旱识别与水柜抗旱预警研究

近年来频发的干旱灾害严重威胁着广西大石山区的人饮安全,鉴于此,2010年4月广西抗旱部门启动了大石山区人畜引水工程建设大会战。文章在对大石山区干旱历史进行识别的基础上,对大会战将要进行的家庭水柜抗旱工程建设进行规划设计,进而对其抵御干旱的预防、预警及应急响应进行分析研究,确定了在水柜不同蓄水情况下人饮干旱预防、预警、应急响应级别和具体实施方案。这对大石山区水柜抵御人饮干旱的作用和具体工程建设具有重要的参考价值。     

北京市居民家庭日常出行碳排放的量化分布与影响因素

本文采用2007年北京市居民活动日志调查数据,对北京市居民家庭工作日出行碳排放进行了测算,采用分等定级和洛伦兹曲线模拟的方法,分析家庭日常出行碳排放的个体间、社区内和社区间分异.研究表明,个体间差异总体比较符合60/20分布法则,社区内的碳排放差异指数较大,内城单位社区和胡同社区家庭普遍低碳出行.     

Regional voices talk theatre: audience development for the performing arts

• Audience development is somewhat of a ‘buzz word’ within the Australian performing arts sector at present. However, rather than actually engaging with audiences and with non‐attenders to discover how to best serve the community, most of the performing arts organisations approach audience development from a product‐centred viewpoint.
• In direct contrast to this, the Talking Theatre project (2004–2006) was implemented in regional Queensland and in the Northern Territory in Australia as an audience development initiative focused on the consumer. The project sought to assist performing arts centres (PACs) to better engage with their local communities and to build new audiences for the future. In particular, the research aimed to understand non‐attenders, their reasons for non‐attendance and their reactions to a range of live performances they experienced under study conditions.
• The Talking Theatre project provided the vehicle for introduction, communication and relationship building to occur to assist in attitudinal and behavioural change. The non‐attenders enjoyed their experiences at the PACs and have begun attending performances outside of study conditions. Limited awareness of the performing arts' relevance to their lives combined with a lack of positive peer influence to attend, were the chief deterrents to attendance for the participants in the study.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Consider the non-adopter: Developing a prediction model for the adoption of household-level broadband access

We explore the decision process for the household-level adoption of broadband Internet access. Our aim, of determining the barriers to household-level broadband adoption and how to best overcome those barriers, guides our analysis in an effort to better inform broadband policy development and implementation. We introduce and rely on data collected from 3101 New Jersey households under the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's nationwide Broadband Technology Opportunity Program. Following MATH, the Model of Technology Adoption in Households, extended with a moderating control variable, we model the conditions under which a household is more or less likely to adopt household-level broadband Internet access. We specify an original two-step model that first estimates from demographic determinants a linear latent variable of the responding household's propensity to not adopt high-speed broadband Internet access, and then regresses that propensity variable on behavioral and attitudinal measures about broadband and computer use and familiarity. Analyzing those outcomes generates three empirical findings that help inform the efficient implementation of policies to establish universal broadband access: (1) demographically, household-level broadband adoption in New Jersey is colorblind: race and ethnicity, in and of themselves, do not predict household-level broadband adoption; (2) behaviorally, the strongest facilitator for household-level broadband adoption is computer use by the household decision-maker; and (3) structurally, the strongest barrier to such adoption is lack of resources. Decomposing and better understanding the phenomenon of non-adoption will help to inform planning efforts to maximize household-level broadband adoption.     

The consumption–investment decision of a prospect theory household: A two-period model

This study extends the literature on portfolio choice under prospect theory preferences by introducing a two-period life cycle model, where the sufficiently loss averse household decides on optimal consumption and investment in a portfolio with one risk-free and one risky asset. The optimal solution depends primarily on whether the household’s present value of the consumption reference levels is below, equal to, or above the present value of its endowment income. Reference levels below the endowment income are associated with the self-enhancement motive. In this case, the household avoids relative losses in consumption in any present or future state of nature (good or bad). As a result the degree of loss aversion does not directly affect optimal consumption and risk taking activity. Reference levels equal to the endowment income are associated with the belonging motive. An example would be a household comparing to others that belong to the same social class. In this case the household’s optimal consumption is the reference consumption and the household will not invest in the risky asset. Finally, reference levels above the endowment income are associated with the self-improvement motive (or high aspirations). For such high reference levels, households cannot avoid experiencing a relative loss in consumption, either now or in the future. As a result, loss aversion directly affects consumption and risky investment.     

住房价格、社会保障支出和居民消费——基于面板门槛模型的实证分析

党的十九大报告提出了改善住房制度、加强社会保障和完善消费体制等一系列要求,这些热点问题之间不是孤立的,而是存在着内在的联系。为此,基于不确定性视角,将社会保障支出水平纳入分析框架研究发现,住房价格上涨通过社会保障支出对居民消费产生正向影响,与原有住房价格通过收入视角对居民消费产生的效应相叠加,使住房价格对居民消费产生的总效应呈现非线性关系。在此基础上,以地方政府社会保障支出水平作为门槛变量,建立关于房价和居民消费率关系的面板门槛模型,以我国2007—2015年省际面板数据为样本进行实证分析,结果表明：社会保障水平的变化使得住房价格对于居民消费率的影响存在显著的单门槛效应。当社会保障支出水平小于其门槛值时,住房价格上涨对居民消费率有较强的抑制效应,两者之间呈现显著的负相关关系;当社会保障水平超过门槛值后,住房价格上涨对居民消费率的抑制效应明显减弱。     

Challenges of green consumption in China: a household energy use perspective

To encourage economic progress, China's government has been pushing domestic consumption as a substitute for its waning growth in investment and exports. It has also been promoting greener policies for growth, of which green consumerism is a prime component. By examining the economy through the lens of household energy consumption, this paper lays out the challenges the nation must overcome through green consumption. We explore the trends in household energy use and decompose energy used indirectly by households into six factors: changes in total population, urbanization rate, energy efficiency, interindustry input mix, household consumption preferences, and per capita household consumption level. Doing so yields insights into how progress in industrial technology, household income, urbanization, and lifestyles has affected energy use in the production of goods and services used by households. It also offers policy suggestions on how China might guide lifestyle changes to effect green consumption.     

Transport scenarios in a company strategy

The environmental company strategy of the case company Oslo Sporveier includes scenarios for the development of person transport in Oslo up to year 2016. The basis for three different scenarios is described. This paper presents the use of scenarios as background for environmental reporting. Emissions, energy, land and time use from person transport in the three different scenarios were determined. The scenarios were (i) a private car scenario, where the main growth in person transport is to be met with a strong increase in the use of private cars, (ii) a public transport scenario, where the increase in person transport is to be taken care of with a strong increase in the public transport, and (iii) the sustainability scenario, with a reduction in total person transport, increased share of public transport and walking/bicycling, and reduced share of private car use. The total energy use, CO₂ emissions, NO_x emissions and particle emissions from person transport in Oslo are reduced in all three scenarios compared with the situation in 1996. The reduction is smallest in the private car scenario and largest in the sustainability scenario. The land use increases in the private car scenario and the public transport scenario, while there is a reduction in land use in the sustainability scenario. The total time consumption connected to person transport increases in all three scenarios. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

感应式智能饮水机控制装置的营销推广

随着人们生活水平的提高,饮水机渐渐走进了千家万户。然而,普通饮水机在水质的保鲜、耗电量、智能控制等方面存在着明显不足,对人类的健康有潜在的危害。在这种情况下。感应式智能饮水机应运而生。感应式智能饮水机与普通饮水机在技术上的主要区别是感应式智能饮水机控制装置。本文分析了目前无锡市场饮水机具有的功能,饮水机消费者对感应式饮水机控制装置的接受程度,在市场调研数据分析的基础上,提出了感应式智能饮水机控制装置的营销推广渠道。     

Evidence on the Demand for Mortgage Debt by Owner-Occupants

This paper explores the relationship between household mortgage debt burdens and housing consumption, periodic income, nonhousing wealth, the income tax position of the household, expected mobility, and other micro-level characteristics that proxy for household risk preferences and life cycle effects. We use 1985 and 1989 American Housing Survey data to estimate mortgage debt level equations simultaneous with house value equations, controlling for the contemporaneous nature of these two choices. We find that larger debt levels are positively associated with greater value residences and with the level of household income. Numerous household level demographic characteristics are also systematically related to mortgage demand. Of particular interest are our findings that the use of mortgage debt is affected significantly by the rate of tax savings on mortgage interest deductions and by the expected mobility of the household.     

浅析饮水与抗旱打井的建设管理

随着人民生活水平的提高,一般生活供水系统都要求24小时不间断供水,近年来在农村,打深水井已非常广泛。本文介绍了水源井建设过程中,农民为饮水安全自主打深水井,改变以往一井一户,变为一井多户,科学规划、合理安排,水源井在抗旱方面起很大作用。     

The importance of volunteers in a capital campaign

One of the most significant factors in the success of any capital campaign is the number, quality and commitment of volunteers used to guide, implement and promote the campaign. This paper will discuss the importance of using volunteers and the critical roles they play within the campaign. The volunteer as giver, asker and motivator will be explained. An example of a typical campaign organisational chart is provided to help the reader identify the number and types of volunteers necessary to implement a successful campaign. Volunteers have many roles to play, and getting the right person to fill each of these roles is essential to success. Methods for recruiting volunteers and the materials that are needed to implement a successful recruitment strategy are included in this discussion. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of the campaign chair as the leader of the campaign effort. The unique role of the Board of Directors as volunteers during a capital campaign is addressed in this paper. Strategies for keeping volunteers involved and motivated are discussed, along with tips to make the volunteer campaign experience a satisfying one for both staff and volunteer. In summary, the author contends that the use of volunteers in a capital campaign is essential to the success of the campaign. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications     

Spatial-equilibrium analysis of transferable development rights

Transfer of development rights (TDR) programs combine low-density incentives with zoning flexibility to generate a market for development rights and to redirect land-use patterns. A differentiated spatial-equilibrium model is used to study the impacts of brokered and unbrokered TDR programs on rents, consumption/location patterns, household utility, and property-tax revenues. Properties of the TDR market, the relationship of TDR systems to uncontrolled and zoned economies, and questions regarding the optimal control of a TDR program are also examined.