Houssam Bouzgarrou

Economic theory and recent empirical evidence show that nonlinear progressive water pricing policies are the most useful tool to reduce water demand in water stressed countries. The originality of our paper is to implement Pedroni (1999) panel cointegration tests, using databases on a breakdown of two consumption blocks (a lower and an upper block) from the Tunisian water regulator over 27 years. The results reveal that increasing block tariffs have been successful in managing scarce water in Tunisia. The authors observe that, in the long-run, proportion of subscribers in the upper water consumption block decreases when price increases, while in the lower block, which is composed essentially of low-income households characterized by inelastic water demand, proportion of subscribers is less elastic to price changes and still unchanged. This paper calls for the implementation of nonlinear progressive pricing to reduce demand by large consumers in order to promote efficiency in use and to promote the access of poor consumers to the resource in order to promote equity.

This study examines the effect of female representation on audit fees in listed UK companies, concentrating on the demographic characteristics of female directors, specifically age and nationality. Using a sample of 165 FTSE 350 companies from 2011 to 2021, generalized least squares regression models are employed to test the link between female audit committee members and audit fees from both the demand and supply sides. The results show a negative relationship between the proportion of females on audit committees and audit fees with a coefficient of –0.2273 (p < 0.05). Thus, higher female representation tends to lower audit costs. However, when considering demographic characteristics, the age and nationality of female members have a positive effect on audit costs, with coefficients of 0.0145 (p < 0.01) and 0.5546 (p < 0.01), respectively. Thus, while gender diversity reduces audit costs overall, experienced (older) female directors and those from diverse national backgrounds may add to audit complexity and, therefore, increase fees. The implications of these findings are relevant to policymakers and corporate governance bodies. Diversity policies should go beyond simple gender quotas. Instead, they should include a broader set of demographic attributes when promoting female representation on audit committees to achieve audit quality and cost efficiency.

Acknowledgment
This study received full funding from the Middle East University, Amman, Jordan.