Depleting water resources is a widespread problem across the Kansas High Plains aquifer. The value of irrigation is accentuated due to lack of surface water and low precipitation in western Kansas. Accelerated groundwater withdrawals for irrigation caused a further decline in the saturated...

A class of dynamic models is developed to assess potential gains from management of groundwater in arid and semi-arid regions in the presence of technical change. The aquifer is a common-pool resource (CPR) because users typically hold the right to pump groundwater but do not own the water...

This research analyzes two groundwater conservation policies in the Kansas High Plains located within the Ogallala aquifer: 1) cost-share assistance to increase irrigation efficiency; and 2) incentive payments to convert irrigated crop production to dryland crop production. To compare the...

This paper studies the divergence in the planning and equilibrium solutions for a multicell aquifer with heterogeneity in cell depths. A spatial model is developed that explicitly accounts for the lateral movement of water between cells. The optimal planning problem maximizes the discounted...

We examine the effects of irrigation technology subsidies using a model of inter- temporal common pool groundwater use with substitutable technology and declining yields from groundwater stocks, where pumping cost and stock externalities arise from the common property problem. We employ an...

Irrigation water demand is estimated using field-level panel data from Kansas over 16 years. The cost of pumping varies over time due to changes in energy prices and across space due to differences in the depth to water. Exploiting this variation allows us to estimate the demand elasticity while...

While there is substantial evidence that nonpoint sources have lower nutrient reduction costs than point sources, experience with water quality trading (WQT) reveals a common theme: little or no trading activity. The success of WQT seems, in part, to depend on the structure of the market created...