未来能源研究所：2024年市政水价中的效率、公平和成本回收权衡报告（英文版）

Municipal water utilities choose rates to recover costs, encourage conservation, and reduce burdens on low-income customers, which may deviate from optimal two-part tariffs. Theory suggests that prices should equal marginal cost with fixed costs recovered via fixed fees or alternative tax revenues. Using rate structure and municipal finance data for more than 700 utilities, I show that prices are discounted severely for low levels of consumption within nonlinear rate structures, leading to su