Groundwater resources (GW) account for nearly 30 percent of the world sustainable water supplies. Yet, this resource, which is fraught with externalities, has largely been left unregulated. The economic literature on GW is predominantly of a partial equilibrium type, taking the rest of the...

Water policy is prone to error because of the complexity of irrigated agriculture. Agriculture is spatially dependent, it exists in the context of a nation's economy with which it must compete for resources, and water markets seldom exist. The process of collective action, as Douglas North has...

This paper analyzes the economy-wide gains obtainable from the allocation of surface irrigation water to its most productive use, and evaluates a decentralized mechanism for achieving this result in a spatially heterogeneous environment. The focus country for the analysis is Morocco. The...

Many of the import competing sectors in Moroccan agriculture are protected while water in irrigated agriculture is priced below its marginal value product. Establishing a water market in this pre-trade reformenvironment can be welfare decreasing. Further, as the shadow price of water is...

This paper analyzes the economy-wide gains obtainable from the allocation of surface irrigation water to its most productive use, and evaluates a decentralized mechanism for achieving this result in a spatially heterogeneous environment. The focus country for the analysis is Morocco. The...

This paper analyzes the economy-wide gains obtainable from the allocation of surface irrigation water to its most productive use, and evaluates a decentralized mechanism for achieving this result in a spatially heterogeneous environment. The focus country for the analysis is Morocco. The...

In a region with shared water aquifers, the use of water by one country becomes an externality to another. A policy to subsidize water is shown to lead to both countries being made worse off, but is likely to be supported by special interests having water rights, and those in sectors such as...

Many of the import competing sectors in Moroccan agriculture are protected while water in irrigated agriculture is priced below its marginal value product. Establishing a water market in this pre-trade reform environment can be welfare decreasing. Further, as the shadow price of water is...

We study the management of a natural resource that supports ecosystems as well as human needs. The reduction in the resource base introduces a threat of occurrence of catastrophic ecological events, such as the sudden collapse of the national habitat that lead to severe loss of biodiversity. The...