Determinants of Water Market Prices in the Western United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 05 (03) ◽  
pp. 1950002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kris Toll ◽  
Craig D. Broadbent ◽  
Quinn Beeson
Keyword(s):  
Water Rights ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
Water Markets ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Water Market ◽  
Market Prices ◽  
Water Users ◽  
Transaction Process ◽  
Hydrologic Conditions ◽  
Rights Transfer

As water markets continue to evolve throughout the western U.S., understanding what factors influence the price of water is informative to water users seeking to engage in transactions. Using 690 water lease transactions and 1,351 water rights transactions from the journal Water Strategist we analyze and provide insights into the effect of user type in the transaction process, hydrologic conditions, geographic location and lease length upon water prices. This analysis is conducted for both a rights transfer and leasing marketplace.

Unsettled Waters

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric P. Perramond
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
The State ◽  
First Century ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Water Law ◽  
Industrial Complex ◽  
Indian Water ◽  
Water Users ◽  
Court Process

Water rights adjudications happen quietly every day across the western United States, sorting Indian water rights, claims by cities, and use by agriculture. This book argues that these state-driven court procedures change what they purport to merely measure and understand about water within state boundaries. Adjudications have unwittingly brought back to the surface old disputes over the meaning of water and access to it. Because of their adversarial court process and identity cleaving between Indian and non-Indian water rights, the state simultaneously faces resistance and friction over water use. Unsettled Waters uses insights from ethnography, geography, and critical legal perspectives to demonstrate the power of local negotiation in water settlements and to examine the side effects of these legal agreements and lawsuits in New Mexico, a state struggling with water scarcity. As the process unfolded in the twentieth century, new expert measures and cultures of expertise developed into an adjudication-industrial complex. These added layers of bureaucracy and technology complicated the state’s view of water. Water users have also pushed back against the state and have used the glacial pace of adjudication to adapt to changes in water law while making new demands. The process will also now have to account for climate-related water supply shifts and unquantified Indian water rights, as well as the demands endangered species and rivers themselves. Adjudication in the twenty-first century may serve a completely different purpose than what it was designed for over a century ago.

Water management problems in the Copiapó Basin, Chile: markets, severe scarcity and the regulator

Water Policy ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 844-863 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo Bitran ◽  
Pedro Rivera ◽  
Marcelo J. Villena
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
Water Markets ◽  
Water Market ◽  
Private Ownership ◽  
Water Regulation ◽  
New Information

This research focuses on the determination of the factors that led to the failure of water management in the Copiapó Basin in Chile. Interestingly, the existence of full private ownership and free tradability of water rights has not prevented the overexploitation of groundwater resources. In the paper, firstly, water regulation and the role of the regulator in Chile are briefly discussed. Secondly, the evolution of water resources in the Copiapó region is characterized and analyzed, and the granting of water use rights in the basin in the last 30 years is concisely described. Thirdly, we examine and analyze prices and quantities traded in the water market of the Copiapó region. We will argue that this crisis is a consequence first of failure in regulatory implementation and second of an extremely rigid regulatory framework that leaves limited room for adjustment to changing conditions, especially regarding the emergence of new information concerning water availability. We believe this investigation is not only relevant for this case in particular, but also for other regions and countries where water markets are in place.

scholarly journals Understanding the emergence of water market institutions: learning from functioning water markets in three countries

Water Policy ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 1075-1091 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustavo Velloso Breviglieri ◽  
Guarany Ipê do Sol Osório ◽  
Jose A. Puppim de Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
Water Markets ◽  
Water Market ◽  
Market Institutions ◽  
Murray Darling Basin ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Management Of Resources ◽  
The Usa

AbstractMarkets for managing natural resources have existed for many decades and have gradually made their way into the mix of discourses on water policy. However, there are not many established water markets functioning worldwide and little understanding about how and why water markets emerge as allocating institutions. In order to understand the dynamics of the evolution of water markets, the experiences of selected cases with relatively mature water market systems were analyzed, namely: the Murray–Darling Basin in Australia; the Colorado-Big Thompson Project and the transfers between the Palo Verde and Metropolitan Water Districts in the USA; and Spain. We found that formal markets emerged in water scarcity situations where water rights already existed and were sometimes exchanged informally. Water markets have not always moved to reduce transaction costs, as some of those costs were necessary to achieve societal goals beyond economic efficiency. There is a significant difference between the idea of water markets as proposed by economic theory and actual practice in the water sector. As institutions, markets are humanly devised rules embedded in a social and political context and do not always lead to efficient or effective solutions for the management of resources.

Water markets as a response to scarcity

Water Policy ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Debaere ◽  
Brian D. Richter ◽  
Kyle Frankel Davis ◽  
Melissa S. Duvall ◽  
Jessica Ann Gephart ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
Water Markets ◽  
Water Users ◽  
Voluntary Exchange ◽  
Governance Systems ◽  
Productive Water

Existing water governance systems are proving to be quite ineffective in managing water scarcity, creating severe risk for many aspects of our societies and economies. Water markets are a relatively new and increasingly popular tool in the fight against growing water scarcity. They make a voluntary exchange possible between interested buyers and sellers of water rights. This paper presents direct evidence from seven water markets around the globe to document key economic and ecological challenges and achievements of water markets with respect to water scarcity. We specifically approach water markets as localized cap-and-trade systems, similar to those for carbon emissions. We examine whether water use remains within the set limits on use of water rights (i.e., under the cap), the degree to which water markets help protect the health of ecosystems and species, and whether (as predicted by economic theory) the explicit pricing of water is accompanied by improving efficiency, as less productive water users decide to sell water to more productive water users.

Modelli economici di allocazione delle risorse idriche: l'analisi del mercato cileno dei water rights

2009 ◽  
pp. 37-68
Author(s):  
Chiara Redaelli
Keyword(s):  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
Water Markets ◽  
Efficient Allocation ◽  
Tradeable Permits ◽  
Market Mechanisms ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Wide Scale ◽  
The Many ◽  
Jel Classifications

Market instruments have been often proposed with the aim of improving the efficient allocation of use rights over natural resources. This article analyzes the potential of market mechanisms in the field of water resources and focuses attention on the experience of Chile, one of the few cases in which water markets have been implemented on a wide scale. Evidence from the Chilean case is discussed in order to verify theoretical hypotheses and to outline the potential benefits but also the many drawbacks of these instruments.Key words: Water policy, water markets, tradeable permits.JEL classifications: Q25, Q58.Parole chiave: Risorse idriche, mercati ambientali, permessi trasferibili.

scholarly journals The global value of water in agriculture

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (36) ◽  
pp. 21985-21993
Author(s):  
Paolo D’Odorico ◽  
Davide Danilo Chiarelli ◽  
Lorenzo Rosa ◽  
Alfredo Bini ◽  
David Zilberman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Shadow Price ◽  
Water Markets ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Market Prices ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Water Value ◽  
The World ◽  
Value Of Water

Major environmental functions and human needs critically depend on water. In regions of the world affected by water scarcity economic activities can be constrained by water availability, leading to competition both among sectors and between human uses and environmental needs. While the commodification of water remains a contentious political issue, the valuation of this natural resource is sometime viewed as a strategy to avoid water waste. Likewise, water markets have been invoked as a mechanism to allocate water to economically most efficient uses. The value of water, however, remains difficult to estimate because water markets and market prices exist only in few regions of the world. Despite numerous attempts at estimating the value of water in the absence of markets (i.e., the “shadow price”), a global spatially explicit assessment of the value of water in agriculture is still missing. Here we propose a data-parsimonious biophysical framework to determine the value generated by water in irrigated agriculture and highlight its global spatiotemporal patterns. We find that in much of the world the actual crop distribution does not maximize agricultural water value.

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