Title: Determinants of wastewater treatment expenditure of Austrian communities

Authors: Michael Getzner

Addresses: Department of Economics, University of Klagenfurt, Universitaetsstrasse 65-67, A-9020 Klagenfurt, Austria

Abstract: Wastewater treatment services are bound to rather strict environmental regulations. However, as the broad range of wastewater expenditure of communities shows, there is room for discretionary policies of communities. The current paper explores wastewater treatment expenditure of Austrian communities by employing a cross-section econometric model. To a significant extent, demographic, geographic and technological variables determine wastewater expenditure with only little possibilities to influence these expenditure. Yet there is also some limited room for short-term discretionary policies with respect to the organisational setting. If communities can organise their wastewater treatment in a collective way, they can influence their expenditure significantly.

Keywords: wastewater treatment economics; wastewater treatment utilities; community policies; public finance; political economy; econometrics; Austria; wastewater expenditure.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2008.021136

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2008 Vol.35 No.1, pp.138 - 151

Published online: 05 Nov 2008 *

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