Residential water demand: Gender differences in water consumption

Residential water demand has been extensively studied, with the impact of various household characteristics on consumption well-documented. However, the specific effect of gender on household consumption remains insufficiently identified due to the predominant focus on mixed-gender households in previous research. In this paper, we aim to address this gap by examining gender differences in water consumption specifically within single-gender households. To accomplish this, we analyze data from 275 households equipped with individual meters in the city of Gij’on, Spain. Our approach involves two main steps: firstly, estimating a Stone-Geary demand function for water consumption in both women and men households, and secondly, employing the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition to examine gender differences. Our findings reveal that women’s households consume significantly more water compared to men’s households. Additionally, we observe that the demand for water is more inelastic among women, and their level of conditional use threshold is higher than that of men. Importantly, we find that these differences can be primarily attributed to distinct factors such as family composition, housing characteristics, and bill information between genders. Moreover, our analysis indicates that there is no unexplained gap in water consumption based on gender.