Municipal Demand for Water in Kuwait: Methodological Issues and Empirical Results

Abstract

This study utilized, for the first time, a demand function for municipal water derived from the Stone‐Geary utility function, thereby permitting explicit consideration of the minimum amount of water necessary for daily needs. Using monthly data from Kuwait, this demand function gave greater price elasticity estimates but smaller income elasticity estimates than those of other countries. It was estimated that the “subsistence” water use level in Kuwait is about 42 L per capita per day and the results suggest that at least in that wealthy country, people do respond to changes in the prices of public services.