关键词: 非线性定价, 用水需求, 认知价格

Abstract: Nonlinear pricing is everywhere in economics such as water, gas, electricity and tax rate. However，due to its complexity，the consumers will not make economic decisions according to marginal price. There are also arguments about whether there is any suppression of demand by nonlinear pricing. Based on Ito’s model（2014）, it explores consumers’ perceived price by the macro water pricing data and monthly consumption information in Guangdong province from 2010 to 2013, and points out the identification problems of previous researches. The results reveal that consumers respond largely to average price and not marginal or expected marginal price of last billing period and the price elasticity of demand is around -0.24. In this sense, the policy is a failure since incentive does not work anyway. The observed decrease of water demand after price reformation is mainly caused by the increase of all marginal price which directly boom the average price. It gives some implications for tax rate design, energy prices and communication package pricing.

Key words: Non-linear Pricing, Water Demand, Perceived Price