Policy analysis of water management for the Netherlands. Vol VIII

Abstract

This volume in the PAWN series documents the impacts on industrial firms in the Netherlands that would be brought about by the imposition of a set of proposed water-management policies. It describes the structure, data requirements, and major assumptions behind the computer models used to calculate the efficient distribution of ground water (GW) and drinking water by simulating the water use of industrial firms. Then it analyzes the possible responses of Dutch firms to changes in the availability or intake costs of GW, estimates the cost and water-use mix of their least-cost responses, and predicts how the European markets for industrial goods will allocate those resulting costs (and benefits) among the impacted firms, their competitors, and their customers. It finds that firms can respond in many ways to changes in their GW intake environment; that some responses cost considerably less than others; that little of the cost can be passed on to consumers, but that the government will pick up about one-third of it; and that the gross cost increases (including the government's share) approximate rather closely the industrial sector's contribution to the policies' total effects on the net economic welfare of the Netherlands.