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We evaluate whether changing from a uniform price (UP) to an increasing block tariff (IBT) changes people's behavior. We exploit a unique setting in which the price scheme moves back and forth yearly from UP to IBT. We discuss the effectiveness of IBT in reducing summer consumption. This issue is relevant to many countries and policymakers interested in designing tariff structures. There is no evidence of how the same consumer may react to systematically switching from one tariff structure to another yearly. We estimate the residential water demand and its price elasticity using a generalized least squared random effect model for the UP and the discrete/continuous choice model for the IBT. In addition, we split the sample between low and high‐consumption groups. For the low consumption group unaffected by the tariff change, the elasticity in the nonsummer months is higher (more elastic) than in the summer. Consumers in this group reduce their elasticity from nonsummer to summer months (−0.299 vs. −0.071, respectively) and increase their consumption by 13%. The high consumption group increased its summer consumption, but only by 8.7%, and contrary to the first group, its elasticity increased significantly (from −0.299 to −0.568). The high‐consumption group is indeed affected by the change in tariff. From a policy perspective, this implies that the IBT structure is relevant. However, if the policy seeks to promote conservation, it needs to be adjusted to a lower decile of the water consumption distribution to affect a more significant portion of the population. Key Points We estimate the residential water demand and its price elasticity under systematic shifts between uniform price and increasing‐block tariff structure We estimate different treatments of the sample: splitting it between summer and nonsummer months and between low and high consumption levels From a policy perspective, we find that people react to tariff changes and that tariff reforms should consider consumers' heterogeneity

This paper explores the role of trade instruments in globally efficient climate policies, focusing on the central issue of whether some form of border tax adjustment (BTA) is warranted when carbon prices differ internationally. It shows that tariff policy has a role in easing cross-country distributional concerns that can make non-uniform carbon pricing efficient and, more particularly, that Pareto-efficiency requires a form of BTA when carbon taxes in some countries are constrained, a special case being identified in which this has the simple structure envisaged in practical policy discusions. It also stresses-a point that has been overlooked in the policy debate-that the efficiency case for BTA depends critically on whether climate policies are pursued by carbon taxation or by cap-and-trade.

The Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD) has produced continent-wide analysis of many aspects of Africa's infrastructure challenge. The main findings were synthesized in a flagship report titled Africa's Infrastructure: a time for transformation, published in November 2009. Meant for policy makers, that report necessarily focused on the high-level conclusions. It attracted widespread media coverage feeding directly into discussions at the 2009 African Union Commission Heads of State Summit on Infrastructure. Although the flagship report served a valuable role in highlighting the main findings of the project, it could not do full justice to the richness of the data collected and technical analysis undertaken. There was clearly a need to make this more detailed material available to a wider audience of infrastructure practitioners. Hence the idea of producing four technical monographs, such as this one, to provide detailed results on each of the major infrastructure sectors, information and communication technologies (ICT), power, transport, and water, as companions to the flagship report. These technical volumes are intended as reference books on each of the infrastructure sectors. They cover all aspects of the AICD project relevant to each sector, including sector performance, gaps in financing and efficiency, and estimates of the need for additional spending on investment, operations, and maintenance. Each volume also comes with a detailed data appendix, providing easy access to all the relevant infrastructure indicators at the country level, which is a resource in and of itself.

The World Bank's 'World Trade Indicators' (WTI) database on the CD-ROM in this volume provides more than 300 performance indicators measuring at-the-border and behind-the-border country trade policy, institutions, and outcomes from 1995 to 2007. The database allows each country to be ranked by any policy or performance dimension relative to others. Trade-at-a-Glance tables for the 210 countries in the database facilitate comparisons among countries in key areas. Complementing the rich database are Trade Briefs for 142 developing countries summarizing insights from the data and the main findings of analytical work conducted by the Word Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization for individual countries.The companion volume to the 'World Trade Indicators 2008' highlights the main patterns in policy and performance revealed by the database grouping countries by region or income. The 20 best and 20 worst country rankings for a number of indicators are shown. For country policy makers, trade negotiators, and advisors, this volume provides the rich context within which to interpret a single country's standing on various dimensions. Business people will gain new insights about the countries in which they and their competitors operate. Trade researchers will find tantalizing country stories on trade policy and institutional dimensions and trade outcomes.Country performance is benchmarked in five key areas: ? Border protection, such as tariffs and nontariff barriers on imports of goods and services ? Market access barriers in the rest of the world to exports of goods ? Overall business and institutional environment ? Trade facilitation ? Trade outcomes, such as trade growth, integration, and diversification.

Large and growing subsidies to residential consumers in Mexico have become a major policy concern. This report explains the growth of subsidies, the current distribution of subsidies across income classes, and uses utility and household survey data to simulate how alternative subsidy mechanisms could improve distributional and fiscal performance. The goal is to help inform discussion in Mexico about how to reduce subsidies and redirect them toward the poor. The findings also offer lessons for other countries that are planning tariff reforms in their electricity sectors.

Efficient sizing and economic analysis of community battery systems is crucial for enhancing energy efficiency and sustainability in rooftop PV panel-rich communities. This paper proposes a comprehensive model that integrates key technical and economic factors to optimize the size and operation of the prosumer-owned battery, maximizing the financial returns over the life span of the battery. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses were also conducted on a number of factors that are constantly changing over the years such as per-unit cost of the battery and interest rate. Monte Carlo simulations were utilized to replicate the unpredictable PV generations and the volatility of house load demands. The developed model is evaluated under three scenarios: a shared community battery for all houses, individual batteries for each house, and a combined system with an additional large load. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is utilized to maximize the formulated objective function subject to the considered constraints. The findings indicate that integrating community batteries offered a substantial economic advantage compared to individual home batteries. The additional revenue stream of incorporating larger consumers looking to reduce their carbon footprint (e.g., commercial) returned a further augmented net present value (NPV). The influence of different tariff structures was also assessed and it was found that critical peak pricing (CPP) was the most prolific. The outcomes offer valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders in the energy sector to facilitate a more sustainable future.

Countries of the Southeast Europe (SEE) region have witnessed significant economic improvement since the beginning of their transition to market economies in the early 1990s. Growth has been particularly strong in the past six years, but still lower than in other fast growing countries in the East Asia and Baltic regions, or some of the other new member states of the European Union (EU). The purpose of this study is twofold: (i) to present recent trends in intra regional trade in SEE, in particular following the implementation of Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA); and (ii) to bring the attention of policy makers to some of the remaining impediments to enhanced intra regional trade. The rest of the study is organized as follows. Chapter two describes intraregional trade patterns, both prior and after the entry of CEFTA into force, including more detailed analysis of trade structure. Chapter three emphasizes the role of nontariff barriers (NTBs), such as technical regulations and standards, and their potential impact on trade enhancement, as well as the importance of the trade related environment drawing on global surveys and reports (doing business, Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS), logistics performance indicator, and the enabling trade index). It also looks at rules of origin and their role in trade creation. Chapter four aims to present the view of the private sector on CEFTA and on trade related reforms in general through two case studies of regional firms. Finally, chapter five concludes by summarizing the key recommendations of the study.

Vehicle to home (V2H) uses bidirectional charging to transfer the energy stored in electric vehicle (EV) batteries for household electricity usage. The usage of energy from EV batteries can lower energy bills by tapping the EV battery during high‐cost periods and recharging during low‐cost periods. In this work, a V2H optimization model is used to minimize home energy costs considering household electrical and heating demand, EV usage, and generation from rooftop solar under different electricity tariff structures, namely a static three‐tier (day/night/peak) and the dynamic tariff structures. The work uses the optimization model to generate 100 representative residential demand profiles assuming V2H usage, which are then used to obtain total aggregate system residential demand assuming widespread use of V2H. The impact of widespread use of V2H on system‐level demand profiles under different tariff structures is thus investigated for a case study using data for Ireland. It is shown that the adoption of V2H can give rise to new peaks in residential demand by aligning all charging with hours when electricity costs are low. To mitigate these peaks and flatten the load, nighttime charging constraints can be introduced. Charging constraints that reduce the charging power to 30% of maximum and restrict the minimum EV battery state of charge (SOC) to 50% are shown to be effective in reducing the peak loads by 50%. The impact of adoption of V2H on the availability of up and down flexibility from EV charging is also investigated. It is shown that the use of V2H restricts the available flexibility with down flexibility in particular being largely restricted to nighttime hours. However, the introduction of the load flattening charging constraints results in a better distribution of flexibility over nighttime hours.

Despite being politically sensitive, water tariffs are frequently administered without information about households' preferences for tariff structures. In this paper we examine the tariff preferences of 1,500 households in Kathmandu, Nepal. We first use a bivariate probit model to examine stated preferences for (1) an increasing block tariff (IBT) and (2) a positive fixed charge. We find that household preferences for IBTs and fixed charges are not easily explained by household socioeconomic and water use characteristics. Second, we ask respondents what they think a fair water bill would be for a randomly assigned quantity of water. We model the responses as a function of both quantity and household socioeconomic and water use characteristics. While households support a water tariff that results in a household's water bill increasing as a household's water use increases, we do not find evidence that households support an increasing, nonlinear relationship between water use and a household's water bill. Our results suggest that respondents desire affordable piped water services and water bills that are calculated fairly for everyone. Because the notion of fairness in Kathmandu varies, utility managers may have considerable latitude in choosing a tariff structure that focuses on other objectives, such as cost recovery, revenue stability, and economic efficiency.