In urban water provisioning, prices can improve efficiency, contributing to the achievement of the environmental objective. However, household responses to price changes differ widely based on the household characteristics. Analyses performed at the aggregate level ignore the implications of water demand incentives at the individual household level. A large data sample at the household level enables estimation of econometric models of water demand, capturing the heterogeneity in domestic consumption. This study estimated the domestic water demand in the city of Valencia and its elasticity, along with the demands of its different districts and neighbourhoods (intra-urban scale analysis). Water price structure in Valencia is completely different from that of other Spanish cities: it is a price structure of increasing volume (increasing rate tariffs, IRT). For this estimation, from a microdata panel at the household level, the demand function with average prices for the period 2008–2011 was estimated using panel data techniques including a fixed effect for each neighbourhood. The domestic water demand elasticity at the average price in Valencia was estimated at −0.88 (which is higher than that estimated for other Spanish cities). This value indicates an inelastic demand at the average price of the previous period, which can cause consumers to overestimate the price and react more strongly to changes.

A series of works have analysed differential behaviour in terms of productive efficiency between companies inside a hypothetical industrial district and those outside the district. This objective has been addressed using measures of technical efficiency. The results obtained provide valuable information for quantifying the district effect at a given moment in time. However, constant changes in the market and business behaviour mean that it is worthwhile studying the business district effect from a dynamic point of view. In this study, we provide this new vision through the use of Malmquist productivity indices. This methodology enables us to analyse possible differential evolutions by comparing the productive efficiency of companies inside and outside a district over a period of time. An empirical application has been made on a set of small and medium‐sized Spanish ceramic producers during the period of economic expansion between 1996 and 2007.

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This paper deals with the question of unobservable heterogeneity and problems of scale in urban water demand. For this purpose, the determinants of domestic water consumption and the elasticities were estimated using a hierarchical model. For our empirical analysis, a household level data panel from Valencia (Spain) between 2009 and 2011 was available. Households were assigned to the city neighbourhoods to which they belong, which allowed us to incorporate the intra-urban scale into the analysis. In the estimate, the average price paid by each household in each bimonthly period was used due to the current tariff structure in Valencia. Regarding our results, there were differences in the consumption between the different neighbourhoods that were not independent of the average price paid by households. We found that 27% of the variability in consumption was explained by differences in household behaviour. In addition, an average price-elasticity in Valencia for all periods of −1.868 was obtained as well as a range of elasticities for the different neighbourhoods between (−1.53 and −1.21). From the results obtained, it is possible to extract relevant information for local water managers in order to apply economic instruments, prices and taxes to urban water demand.