—南 昌 大 学 考 试 试 卷—
【适用时间：20 14 ～20 15 学年第 一 学期 试卷类型：[ A ]卷】
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Pricing, Water
水的价值
An acquaintance once said that "every water faucet in New York City leaks." She was
exaggerating, of course, but her point was that New Yorkers do not take the time or spend the money to repair leaks. Why? Most residents of the city pay a flat fee for their water. For a fixed monthly charge, residents can use as much water as they want. Marginal cost is zero. Hence, the wasted water costs them nothing, aside from the annoyance of listening to the drip.
But why should anyone worry about the cost of water?
一位熟人曾说; 纽约的每一个水龙头都漏水。当然她有些夸张，但是她想说的重点是纽约人不花费时间或金钱去修。为什么呢？因为这个城市的大部分居民付的公寓费用中包含了水费。每月付固定的费用，居民可以无限量用水。边际成本为零。因此，除了厌烦听滴水声之外，浪费的水不花他们一分钱。
The figure shows recent prices of an additional 1,000 gallons per month in several U.S.
cities in 2001, ranging from $1.25 to nearly $3.00. (Water rates in other countries often are considerably higher.) For most Americans, this is a very small part of their budgets. Even so, study after study has shown that most water users will indeed respond to a higher price by fixing leaks, using a broom instead of a hose to clean the driveway, and otherwise
conserving water. Imposing a quantity charge, or raising it, forces users to rethink, even if only informally, their marginal benefit/marginal cost computations and adjust
consumption accordingly.
这份数据显示2001年在美国的若干个城市每个月额外1000加仑水的价格的范围在1.25美元到接近3美元。（其他城市的水费经常高出很多。）对于大多数美国人来说，这只是他们预算的一小部分。即便如此，一项又一项的研究显示了大多数用户真的将付更多的钱去修水龙头，用扫帚而不是水管清理车道，亦或是储水。计量收费，或是提高价格，会使用户重新思考他们的边际效益或是边际成本，并相应地调整消费，即使只是随便想想。
What is Water's True Cost?
什么是水的实际成本？
Even when water utilities use a quantity charge instead of a fixed fee, they often set the quantity charge too low. Typical public water utilities design their rates to cover
out-of-pocket costs, but such costs often fall short of the true economic value of extracting and distributing water.
即便用水采用计量收费取代了固定费用，他们经常把收费设得很低。通常公共用水设置的价格会覆盖实付
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成本，但是这样的成本经常达不到取水和运水的实际经济效益。
Subsidies.
资助
First, governments often subsidize water infrastructure . Developers often must
contribute ready-to-use water systems to the utility. These subsidies do not come directly from the utility company and hence do not show up in their accounting records.
首先，政府经常资助水利基层建设。开发者必须经常为公共设施贡献现成的供水系统。这些资助不是直接来源于公共事业公司，因此并不是要炫耀他们的会计记录。
Capital Equipment.
资本设备（固定设备）
Second, capital equipment—pumps, water mains, buildings, and so on—is a major element of total water cost and tends to last for several decades. Replacing a water main built, for example, 40 years ago would cost almost six times the original cost because of inflation alone. Yet few if any utilities update the value of aging capital equipment when they add up costs.
其次，在过去的几十年中固定设备是自来水成本的关键因素-----水泵、自来水总管道、建筑物等等，例如由于通货膨胀本身导致更换修建主管道的成本是四十年前的六倍，然而当固定成本叠加的时，没有任何实用方法更新设备老化
Scarcity Value.
货缺价值
Third, water in the ground or in a stream is valuable because it is scarce. The right to divert water from a stream or to pump it from an aquifer is an asset of growing value to utility companies But again is often ignored in standard accounting practice. One study estimated scarcity value to be at least as large as all other conventionally reckoned costs together. Similarly, any environmental costs incurred in providing public water supplies should be added to water rates.
最后，地表水和小溪非常有价值在于他们稀缺，南水北调工程的从流或用水泵引水的权利是一项资产的价值增长给公共事业公司，但又常常被忽略的标准会计实务。一项研究估计要在一起至少和其他常规的计算费用一样大的稀缺价值。同样地，在提供公共供水系统的任何环境的费用应添加到水费。
Pricing as a Conservation Incentive
作为保护激励定价
For the reasons outlined above, water rate schedules based on the utility's out-of-pocket costs leave consumers paying less than they should. And since consumers pay too little, they use too much.
基于上面列举的原因，基于实用程序的自付费用的水率计划使得消费者支付的少于他们应该交的。而且因为消费者支付太少，他们使用太多。
However, an increasing number of water utilities have recognized the potential of pricing to provide an incentive for their customers to conserve water. Some (Seattle, Washington and southern California, for example) have refined the notion, charging higher rates during droughts or in dry seasons or for unexpectedly large quantities.
然而，越来越多的自来水公司已经承认定价为他们的客户可以节约用水提供了一个潜在诱因，一些地方自
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来水公司像华盛顿州、西雅图市和南部的加利福尼亚州重新定价，在干旱期间或在干旱季节或没有大批量订货收取更高利率
But if water is priced at its full economic cost, what about the poor? Several major cities have taken at least tentative steps toward establishing what is called an "inclined-block" water rate schedule, as shown here:
但是但如果水价在其充分的经济成本，穷人呢？几个主要城市已采取了至少初步步骤建立阶梯价格的水率附表，如下所示：
Ideally, customers under this system would pay a low rate for the first few thousand gallons used, but the rate would rise until they pay the full marginal cost for the last thousand gallons. The criterion of marginal benefits equals marginal costs would be met, and yet even the poorest could afford at least a basic amount.
理想情况下，在这个阶梯价格体系下的客户只需支付低速率就可以使用几千加仑水，但速率 会上升，直到他们为最后几千加支付全部的全边际成本，标准的边际效益的等于边际费用，然而，让即使最穷的用户能至少一个基本自来水的使用量。
Trending Toward Demand Management.
需求管理的趋势
On average, Americans use more than 1,000 gallons of water per day. The amount necessary to sustain life processes is quite small, perhaps a few gallons per day. Of the difference, how much is really needed for bathing, laundry, housecleaning, car washing, lawn and garden care, filling the swimming pool, and so on? Clearly, if consumers are presented with the right incentive, they can conserve on water use.
平均来看，美国人每天使用超过 1000 加仑的水，维持生命过程所需量很小，也许几加仑每一天，区别在于，多少是真正用于沐浴、 洗衣、 打扫房间、 洗车、 草坪和花园的护理，灌装游泳池，等等？显然，如果现在适当的激励消费者，他们就可以节约用水。
This article has considered mainly residential water users, but similar considerations apply to businesses and farms that use water. Farmers, for example, have developed highly sophisticated means of conservation by determining exactly how much water each plant needs and applying just that amount, but adjusting for water costs. Hotels install low-flow showerheads and toilets. Car washes and many other businesses reuse water.
这篇文章已被视为主要的居民水使用，与此同时类似的考虑适用于企业和用水的农场，举个例子，农民有由高度熟练的养护手段确定每一种作物需要多少水和使用多少量。但调整后的水成本，使得酒店安装低流
第 4 页 共 6 页
量莲蓬头和厕所，洗车和许多其他企业重复利用水。
Most public utilities and other water-supply agencies try to accommodate growth in water demand by looking for additional water sources to develop; this is supply-side
management. But growth can often be met by conservation in the use of existing sources; this is demand management. Some utilities go so far as to charge a premium during the dry season, for unanticipated high water demands, or during periods of drought. Pricing is a powerful tool of growing importance in the toolkits of water managers and
environmentalists.
大部分的公用事业和其他供水机构尝试通过寻找更多水源，以发展适应水需求的增长，这是供应方面的管理。但发展靠对现有水资源的利用保护，这是需求方面的管理。在干旱季节和期间甚至向一些公用事业单位收取额外的费用对非预期的高水的需求，定价是日益重要的水资源管理者和环保主义者工具包中的有力工具。
EFFECTS OF SUBSIDIES
附加的影响
As anyone who has seen the 1939 film Gone with the Wind knows, cotton was once the staple crop of the southern United States. No more. Cotton, a very water intensive crop, was well suited to the southern climate with its heavy rainfall. The center of cotton production has since shifted, however, to bone-dry parts of California. Why?
Several reasons exist for cotton's western migration, but clearly this shift could not have happened without federally funded irrigation projects. Generally, farmers who use water from these projects pay far less than its full economic value; they are thus subsidized. Subsidies are common among government-financed water resource projects. However, they are not free: taxpayers bear the cost in proportion to their tax payments.
正如我们所知道的 1939 年电影《乱世佳人》，棉花曾经是美国南部的主要作物，是一种耗水量大的作物，非常适合南方的气候与它的降雨。然而，棉花生产的中心已经转移到加州干燥地区。为什么呢？棉花的西部迁移，存在以下几个原因：但显然这种转变可能不是源于由联邦政府出资的灌溉工程，一般来说，农民从这些项目使用水的支付远远小于其全部经济价值 ；他们因而可获补助。补贴是政府资助的水资源项目中常见的。然而，他们不是免费的：纳税人承担的按费用比例缴纳税款。
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第 6 页 共 6 页
—南 昌 大 学 考 试 试 卷—
【适用时间：20 14 ～20 15 学年第 一 学期 试卷类型：[ A ]卷】
第 1 页 共 6 页
Pricing, Water
水的价值
An acquaintance once said that "every water faucet in New York City leaks." She was
exaggerating, of course, but her point was that New Yorkers do not take the time or spend the money to repair leaks. Why? Most residents of the city pay a flat fee for their water. For a fixed monthly charge, residents can use as much water as they want. Marginal cost is zero. Hence, the wasted water costs them nothing, aside from the annoyance of listening to the drip.
But why should anyone worry about the cost of water?
一位熟人曾说; 纽约的每一个水龙头都漏水。当然她有些夸张，但是她想说的重点是纽约人不花费时间或金钱去修。为什么呢？因为这个城市的大部分居民付的公寓费用中包含了水费。每月付固定的费用，居民可以无限量用水。边际成本为零。因此，除了厌烦听滴水声之外，浪费的水不花他们一分钱。
The figure shows recent prices of an additional 1,000 gallons per month in several U.S.
cities in 2001, ranging from $1.25 to nearly $3.00. (Water rates in other countries often are considerably higher.) For most Americans, this is a very small part of their budgets. Even so, study after study has shown that most water users will indeed respond to a higher price by fixing leaks, using a broom instead of a hose to clean the driveway, and otherwise
conserving water. Imposing a quantity charge, or raising it, forces users to rethink, even if only informally, their marginal benefit/marginal cost computations and adjust
consumption accordingly.
这份数据显示2001年在美国的若干个城市每个月额外1000加仑水的价格的范围在1.25美元到接近3美元。（其他城市的水费经常高出很多。）对于大多数美国人来说，这只是他们预算的一小部分。即便如此，一项又一项的研究显示了大多数用户真的将付更多的钱去修水龙头，用扫帚而不是水管清理车道，亦或是储水。计量收费，或是提高价格，会使用户重新思考他们的边际效益或是边际成本，并相应地调整消费，即使只是随便想想。
What is Water's True Cost?
什么是水的实际成本？
Even when water utilities use a quantity charge instead of a fixed fee, they often set the quantity charge too low. Typical public water utilities design their rates to cover
out-of-pocket costs, but such costs often fall short of the true economic value of extracting and distributing water.
即便用水采用计量收费取代了固定费用，他们经常把收费设得很低。通常公共用水设置的价格会覆盖实付
第 2 页 共 6 页
成本，但是这样的成本经常达不到取水和运水的实际经济效益。
Subsidies.
资助
First, governments often subsidize water infrastructure . Developers often must
contribute ready-to-use water systems to the utility. These subsidies do not come directly from the utility company and hence do not show up in their accounting records.
首先，政府经常资助水利基层建设。开发者必须经常为公共设施贡献现成的供水系统。这些资助不是直接来源于公共事业公司，因此并不是要炫耀他们的会计记录。
Capital Equipment.
资本设备（固定设备）
Second, capital equipment—pumps, water mains, buildings, and so on—is a major element of total water cost and tends to last for several decades. Replacing a water main built, for example, 40 years ago would cost almost six times the original cost because of inflation alone. Yet few if any utilities update the value of aging capital equipment when they add up costs.
其次，在过去的几十年中固定设备是自来水成本的关键因素-----水泵、自来水总管道、建筑物等等，例如由于通货膨胀本身导致更换修建主管道的成本是四十年前的六倍，然而当固定成本叠加的时，没有任何实用方法更新设备老化
Scarcity Value.
货缺价值
Third, water in the ground or in a stream is valuable because it is scarce. The right to divert water from a stream or to pump it from an aquifer is an asset of growing value to utility companies But again is often ignored in standard accounting practice. One study estimated scarcity value to be at least as large as all other conventionally reckoned costs together. Similarly, any environmental costs incurred in providing public water supplies should be added to water rates.
最后，地表水和小溪非常有价值在于他们稀缺，南水北调工程的从流或用水泵引水的权利是一项资产的价值增长给公共事业公司，但又常常被忽略的标准会计实务。一项研究估计要在一起至少和其他常规的计算费用一样大的稀缺价值。同样地，在提供公共供水系统的任何环境的费用应添加到水费。
Pricing as a Conservation Incentive
作为保护激励定价
For the reasons outlined above, water rate schedules based on the utility's out-of-pocket costs leave consumers paying less than they should. And since consumers pay too little, they use too much.
基于上面列举的原因，基于实用程序的自付费用的水率计划使得消费者支付的少于他们应该交的。而且因为消费者支付太少，他们使用太多。
However, an increasing number of water utilities have recognized the potential of pricing to provide an incentive for their customers to conserve water. Some (Seattle, Washington and southern California, for example) have refined the notion, charging higher rates during droughts or in dry seasons or for unexpectedly large quantities.
然而，越来越多的自来水公司已经承认定价为他们的客户可以节约用水提供了一个潜在诱因，一些地方自
第 3 页 共 6 页
来水公司像华盛顿州、西雅图市和南部的加利福尼亚州重新定价，在干旱期间或在干旱季节或没有大批量订货收取更高利率
But if water is priced at its full economic cost, what about the poor? Several major cities have taken at least tentative steps toward establishing what is called an "inclined-block" water rate schedule, as shown here:
但是但如果水价在其充分的经济成本，穷人呢？几个主要城市已采取了至少初步步骤建立阶梯价格的水率附表，如下所示：
Ideally, customers under this system would pay a low rate for the first few thousand gallons used, but the rate would rise until they pay the full marginal cost for the last thousand gallons. The criterion of marginal benefits equals marginal costs would be met, and yet even the poorest could afford at least a basic amount.
理想情况下，在这个阶梯价格体系下的客户只需支付低速率就可以使用几千加仑水，但速率 会上升，直到他们为最后几千加支付全部的全边际成本，标准的边际效益的等于边际费用，然而，让即使最穷的用户能至少一个基本自来水的使用量。
Trending Toward Demand Management.
需求管理的趋势
On average, Americans use more than 1,000 gallons of water per day. The amount necessary to sustain life processes is quite small, perhaps a few gallons per day. Of the difference, how much is really needed for bathing, laundry, housecleaning, car washing, lawn and garden care, filling the swimming pool, and so on? Clearly, if consumers are presented with the right incentive, they can conserve on water use.
平均来看，美国人每天使用超过 1000 加仑的水，维持生命过程所需量很小，也许几加仑每一天，区别在于，多少是真正用于沐浴、 洗衣、 打扫房间、 洗车、 草坪和花园的护理，灌装游泳池，等等？显然，如果现在适当的激励消费者，他们就可以节约用水。
This article has considered mainly residential water users, but similar considerations apply to businesses and farms that use water. Farmers, for example, have developed highly sophisticated means of conservation by determining exactly how much water each plant needs and applying just that amount, but adjusting for water costs. Hotels install low-flow showerheads and toilets. Car washes and many other businesses reuse water.
这篇文章已被视为主要的居民水使用，与此同时类似的考虑适用于企业和用水的农场，举个例子，农民有由高度熟练的养护手段确定每一种作物需要多少水和使用多少量。但调整后的水成本，使得酒店安装低流
第 4 页 共 6 页
量莲蓬头和厕所，洗车和许多其他企业重复利用水。
Most public utilities and other water-supply agencies try to accommodate growth in water demand by looking for additional water sources to develop; this is supply-side
management. But growth can often be met by conservation in the use of existing sources; this is demand management. Some utilities go so far as to charge a premium during the dry season, for unanticipated high water demands, or during periods of drought. Pricing is a powerful tool of growing importance in the toolkits of water managers and
environmentalists.
大部分的公用事业和其他供水机构尝试通过寻找更多水源，以发展适应水需求的增长，这是供应方面的管理。但发展靠对现有水资源的利用保护，这是需求方面的管理。在干旱季节和期间甚至向一些公用事业单位收取额外的费用对非预期的高水的需求，定价是日益重要的水资源管理者和环保主义者工具包中的有力工具。
EFFECTS OF SUBSIDIES
附加的影响
As anyone who has seen the 1939 film Gone with the Wind knows, cotton was once the staple crop of the southern United States. No more. Cotton, a very water intensive crop, was well suited to the southern climate with its heavy rainfall. The center of cotton production has since shifted, however, to bone-dry parts of California. Why?
Several reasons exist for cotton's western migration, but clearly this shift could not have happened without federally funded irrigation projects. Generally, farmers who use water from these projects pay far less than its full economic value; they are thus subsidized. Subsidies are common among government-financed water resource projects. However, they are not free: taxpayers bear the cost in proportion to their tax payments.
正如我们所知道的 1939 年电影《乱世佳人》，棉花曾经是美国南部的主要作物，是一种耗水量大的作物，非常适合南方的气候与它的降雨。然而，棉花生产的中心已经转移到加州干燥地区。为什么呢？棉花的西部迁移，存在以下几个原因：但显然这种转变可能不是源于由联邦政府出资的灌溉工程，一般来说，农民从这些项目使用水的支付远远小于其全部经济价值 ；他们因而可获补助。补贴是政府资助的水资源项目中常见的。然而，他们不是免费的：纳税人承担的按费用比例缴纳税款。
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