Postdoctoral Researcher Position in Household water management through metering

Research Objective and Motivation

• Water policy research is inherently inter- and transdisciplinary, requiring an integrated understanding of hydrological systems, engineering constraints, institutional design, and household behavior. My current research program focuses on the quantitative evaluation of water governance and conservation policies in India and comparable international contexts, with a particular emphasis on econometric modeling of demand-side interventions.

 

• This project aims to evaluate the impact of household water metering and volumetric pricing on water conservation, service quality, and consumer welfare. While water metering is widely used in urban settings, it is often considered infeasible in rural India. However, a small number of villages in Gujarat—Takhatgarh, Rinari, Bhadran, and Jam Kandola—have successfully implemented household-level water metering, providing a unique natural laboratory for rigorous policy evaluation.

 

• The study will examine how water metering influences (i) household water demand and price sensitivity, (ii) quality and reliability of water supply, (iii) consumer welfare, and (iv) sewage generation and management. The project will be conducted in close collaboration with village panchayats and relevant state agencies, with the dual objective of generating scholarly evidence and supporting locally relevant policy design.

  Methodology and Work Plan

• Phase I: Institutional Assessment and Cost Analysis- The project will begin with stakeholder engagement involving village panchayat leaders and officials from the Water Resources and related departments. Detailed case studies will be developed to understand the institutional and political drivers of water metering adoption. This phase will include estimation of capital expenditure (CapEx) and operational expenditure (OpEx) associated with metering systems, assessment of cost- recovery mechanisms, and analysis of financial sustainability models for reliable water supply. The potential role of water and carbon credits in cross-subsidizing metering investments will also be explored.
• Phase II: Econometric Evaluation of Household Water Use Behavior- Using household-level water metering data, the project will estimate demand responses to volumetric pricing and assess heterogeneity in price sensitivity across households.Econometric analysis will quantify changes in water consumption, service quality, and welfare outcomes attributable to metering.
• Phase III: Experimental Design for Pricing Interventions (Subject to Feasibility) Conditional on stakeholder agreement and institutional feasibility, the project will assess the possibility of implementing a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of alternative water pricing structures to strengthen causal identification of price effects on consumption behavior.

  Expected Deliverables

• A policy-oriented paper documenting rural and urban water metering experiences in Gujarat, including governance arrangements and financial models adopted by local institutions, with recommendations for improvement and scalability.
• An applied econometric research paper analyzing household water metering data and consumer responses to volumetric pricing, targeted at peer-reviewed water policy or applied economics journals.