Perceptions of Groundwater Sharing and Community Prosperity: An Ordered-Probit Approach

This paper presents an ordered-probit approach to model the effects of ?objective? variables, such as age, education level, income, caste, household size and land endowment of farm households, on perceived (subjective) attitudes to groundwater sharing and community prosperity of the household. The independent variables used in this study represent the social, economic and demographic characteristics of the households and social capital. The results show that age, size of the landholding, household size and trust have significant influence on the household?s attitude to groundwater sharing and community prosperity. The social variable, the education and economic variable, income have no significant effect on the household?s subjective judgment on groundwater sharing and prosperity. This study suggests that while designing policies, the socio-economic and demographic attributes of the farmers and social capital be considered to reflect the altruism in the groundwater resource allocations.