Well the DECRA publications are starting to emerge online and the first one off the rank is building on the collaborative efforts that started last year. The new publication is Gomez, C. M., Pérez-Blanco, D., Adamson, D., and Loch, A. (In Press). "Managing Water Scarcity at a River Basin Scale with Economic Instruments." Water Economics and Policy 0(0): 1750004. (here) It will become an open access document. Abstract This paper presents a conceptual framework for both assessing the role of economic instruments, and reshaping them in order to enhance their contribution to the goals of managing water scarcity. Water management problems stem from the mismatch between a multitude of individual decisions, on the one hand, and the current and projected status of water resources on the other. Economics can provide valuable incentives that drive individual decisions, and can design efficient instruments to address water governance problems in a context of conflicting interests and relevant transaction costs. Yet, instruments such as water pricing or trading are mostly based on general principles of welfare economics that are not readily applicable to assets as complex as water. A flaw in welfare economic approaches lies in the presumption that economic instruments may be good or bad on their own (e.g., finding the “right” price). This vision changes radically when we focus on the problem, instead of the instrument. In this paper, we examine how economic instruments to achieve welfare-enhancing water resource outcomes can realize their full potential in basin-scale management contexts. We follow a political economy perspective that views conflicts between public and private interest as the main instrumental challenge of water management. Our analysis allows us to better understand the critical importance of economic instruments for reconciling individual actions towards collective ambitions of water efficiency, equity and sustainability with lessons for later-adopting jurisdictions. Rather than providing panaceas, the successful design and implementation of economic instruments as key river basin management arrangements involves high transaction costs, wide institutional changes and collective action at different levels. Keywords: Economic instruments; river basin management; political economy; water policy Read More: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S2382624X17500047 Comments are closed.
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AuthorDavid Adamson Archives
February 2019
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