Financial Implications of COVID-19 for Public Water Systems
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 149, Issue 10
Abstract
Policy and behavioral responses to the COVID-19 pandemic led to sizeable and abrupt changes in water use. This study investigates the financial implications of these changes for water providers using annual data from public water systems in Wisconsin. Fixed-effects panel regressions were estimated to evaluate how COVID-19 affected water sales, total revenue, operating cost, and the revenue-to-cost ratio. Results indicate that COVID-19 led to increased residential water sales and decreased nonresidential water sales that resulted, on average, in higher revenue, higher costs, and lower net operating income. These effects varied markedly by system size and proportion of residential to total customers, although these differences were not statistically significant. Findings further suggest that large and moderate-sized water providers were relatively resilient to the effects of COVID-19, while small providers ( customer accounts) experienced the largest declines in net operating income.
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Data Availability Statement
All data and code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the valuable assistance provided by Lane Sailer in compiling data used in this analysis.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 149 • Issue 10 • October 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 30, 2022
Accepted: May 24, 2023
Published online: Aug 7, 2023
Published in print: Oct 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Jan 7, 2024
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