As a consequence, European legislation such as the Water Framework Directive promotes the concept of cost-recovery, i.e. policies to recover the full costs of water provision, taking into account private costs (costs endorsed by water suppliers such as abstraction, storage and treatment costs) as well as social costs (costs endorsed by the society as a whole, including environmental costs). This reaction is measured by elasticities, which are often quite low (see Box 4.4), reflecting small effects of pricing. This is influenced by income levels and pricing structure.