IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/juipol/v47y2017icp50-57.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Factors associated with nonpayment behavior in the water sector of Nicaragua

Author

Listed:
  • Vásquez, William F.
  • Alicea-Planas, Jessica

Abstract

Nonpayment behavior by consumers may jeopardize the financial sustainability of water utilities. Yet, little is known about factors underlying nonpayment behavior. This paper identifies determinants of nonpayment in Nicaragua using negative binomial regression models that account for overdispersion in the number of outstanding payments of water bills. We found that the average household had 37 outstanding monthly payments. Nonpayment was found to be inversely associated with consumer satisfaction with the current quality of water service and household income. However, nonpayment was found to be disassociated from the perceived consequentiality of not paying water bills on time. Policy implications are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Vásquez, William F. & Alicea-Planas, Jessica, 2017. "Factors associated with nonpayment behavior in the water sector of Nicaragua," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 50-57.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:juipol:v:47:y:2017:i:c:p:50-57
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2017.06.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0957178717300607
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jup.2017.06.010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kertous, Mourad & Zerzour, Sahad, 2015. "To pay or not to pay? Water bill and delay in payment in Bejaia (Algeria): A duration analysis," MPRA Paper 67801, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Szabó, Andrea & Ujhelyi, Gergely, 2015. "Reducing nonpayment for public utilities: Experimental evidence from South Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 20-31.
    3. Sarah Bridges & Richard Disney, 2004. "Use of credit and arrears on debt among low-income families in the United Kingdom," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 25(1), pages 1-25, March.
    4. Fankhauser, Samuel & Tepic, Sladjana, 2007. "Can poor consumers pay for energy and water? An affordability analysis for transition countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 1038-1049, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Arasteh, Mohammad Ali & Farjami, Yaghoub, 2021. "Supporting Sustainable Rural Groundwater Demand Management with Fuzzy Decision Analysis: A Case Study in Iran," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    2. Tonke, Sebastian, 2024. "Providing procedural knowledge: A field experiment to encourage resource conservation in Namibia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    3. Momi Dahan & Udi Nisan, 2020. "Late Payments, Liquidity Constraints and the Mismatch between Due Dates and Paydays," CESifo Working Paper Series 8733, CESifo.
    4. Karki, Dipesh, 2023. "Factors affecting nonpayment of water service by rural households in Nepal," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Burcu Duygan-Bump & Charles Grant, 2008. "Household debt repayment behaviour: what role do institutions play?," Supervisory Research and Analysis Working Papers QAU08-3, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    2. He, Xiaoping & Reiner, David, 2016. "Electricity demand and basic needs: Empirical evidence from China's households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 212-221.
    3. Mazur, Christoph & Hoegerle, Yannick & Brucoli, Maria & van Dam, Koen & Guo, Miao & Markides, Christos N. & Shah, Nilay, 2019. "A holistic resilience framework development for rural power systems in emerging economies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C), pages 219-232.
    4. Fankhauser, Samuel & Rodionova, Yulia & Falcetti, Elisabetta, 2008. "Utility payments in Ukraine: Affordability, subsidies and arrears," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 4168-4177, November.
    5. Sara Fernández‐López & Marcos Álvarez‐Espiño & Lucía Rey‐Ares & Sandra Castro‐González, 2024. "Consumer financial vulnerability: Review, synthesis, and future research agenda," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(4), pages 1045-1084, September.
    6. Ana María Iregui-Bohórquez & Ligia Alba Melo-Becerra & María Teresa Ramírez-Giraldo & Ana María Tribín-Uribe, 2018. "Crédito formal e informal de los hogares en Colombia," Investigación Conjunta-Joint Research, in: María José Roa García & Diana Mejía (ed.), Decisiones financieras de los hogares e inclusión financiera: evidencia para América Latina y el Caribe, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 5, pages 133-166, Centro de Estudios Monetarios Latinoamericanos, CEMLA.
    7. Piotr Bialowolski & Dorota Weziak‐Bialowolska, 2021. "Good credit, bad credit: The differential role of the sources of debt in life satisfaction," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 967-994, September.
    8. Simshauser, Paul, 2021. "Vulnerable households and fuel poverty: Measuring the efficiency of policy targeting in Queensland," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    9. Whittington, Dale & Nauges, Céline & Fuente, David & Wu, Xun, 2015. "A diagnostic tool for estimating the incidence of subsidies delivered by water utilities in low- and medium-income countries, with illustrative simulations," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 70-81.
    10. Gawel, Erik & Sigel, Katja & Bretschneider, Wolfgang, 2011. "Affordability of water supply in Mongolia: Empirical lessons for measuring affordability," UFZ Discussion Papers 9/2011, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    11. Adwoa Asantewaa & Tooraj Jamasb & Manuel Llorca, 2022. "Electricity Sector Reform Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Parametric Distance Function Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-29, March.
    12. Cristina OTTAVIANI & Daniela VANDONE, 2010. "Impulsivity and household indebtedness," Departmental Working Papers 2010-28, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    13. Marco FRIGERIO & Cristina OTTAVIANI & Daniela VANDONE, 2018. "A Meta-Analytic Investigation of Consumer Over-Indebtedness: the Role of Impulsivity," Departmental Working Papers 2018-08, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    14. Maslina Mansor & Mohamad Fazli Sabri & Mustazar Mansur & Muslimah Ithnin & Amirah Shazana Magli & Abd Rahim Husniyah & Nurul Shahnaz Mahdzan & Mohd Amim Othman & Roza Hazli Zakaria & Nurulhuda Mohd Sa, 2022. "Analysing the Predictors of Financial Stress and Financial Well-Being among the Bottom 40 Percent (B40) Households in Malaysia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-23, September.
    15. Grainger, Corbett & Schreiber, Andrew & Zhang, Fan, 2019. "Distributional impacts of energy-heat cross-subsidization," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 65-81.
    16. Du Caju, Philip & Rycx, François & Tojerow, Ilan, 2016. "Unemployment risk and over-indebtedness," Working Paper Series 1908, European Central Bank.
    17. Schicks, Jessica, 2014. "Over-Indebtedness in Microfinance – An Empirical Analysis of Related Factors on the Borrower Level," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 301-324.
    18. Richard Disney & Sarah Bridges & John Gathergood, 2006. "Housing Wealth and Household Indebtedness: Is there a Household 'Financial Accelerator'?," Working Papers 2006/12, Czech National Bank.
    19. Julián Costas-Fernández & Simón Lodato, 2022. "Inequality, poverty and the composition of redistribution," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 59(4), pages 925-967, November.
    20. Iuliia Ogarenko & Klaus Hubacek, 2013. "Eliminating Indirect Energy Subsidies in Ukraine: Estimation of Environmental and Socioeconomic Effects Using Input–Output Modeling," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 2(1), pages 1-27, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:juipol:v:47:y:2017:i:c:p:50-57. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/utilities-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.