Turn off the faucet: Can individual meters reduce water consumption?
研究在厄瓜多尔基多安装独立水表对家庭用水量的影响，发现用水量下降约20%，效果相当于水价上涨至少66%，对发展中国家和发达国家都有参考价值。
When consumption of water and other utilities is measured collectively for many households and the payment of such services is equally shared among members of the group, individuals may use more than what is socially optimal. In this paper, we evaluate how the installation of individual meters affects water consumption. Using administrative data from the public water utility company in Quito, Ecuador, and an event study approach, it is estimated that water consumption decreases by about 20% as a result of the introduction of individual metering. The effect is large and economically significant: in order to obtain the same effect using the price mechanism in Quito, prices would have to increase by at least 66%. Individual water metering could be a useful tool to curve down consumption in both developing and developed countries.