Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T01:12:46.142Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

WAS-guided cooperation in water: the grand coalition and sub-coalitions*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2009

FRANKLIN M. FISHER  and
ANNETTE HUBER-LEE
FRANKLIN M. FISHER
Affiliation:
Jane Berkowitz Carlton and Dennis William Carlton Professor of Microeconomics, Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
ANNETTE HUBER-LEE
Affiliation:
Science Leader, Challenge Program for Water and Food, 127 Sunil Mawatha, Pelawatta, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka. Email: a.huber-lee@cgiar.org
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper builds on the earlier development of WAS – a method of dealing with water issues that focuses on water values rather than water quantities and takes into account public values that are not simply private ones (see Fisher et al., 2005). WAS can be used for infrastructure or policy planning, but it can also assist in the resolution of water disputes. Indeed, WAS-guided cooperation in water can turn what appears to be a zero-sum gain into a win-win situation. It is shown that if WAS sets the rules for cooperation, then, when all claimants use those rules, the coalition of all of them together is stable. Results for possible coalitions of Israel, Jordan, and Palestine are given for varying assumptions as to water ownership. The gains from cooperation are compared and analyzed. WAS-guided cooperation is seen to make the value of ownership shifts relatively trivial.

Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 14 , Issue 1: GAME THEORY, NATURAL RESOURCES AND THE ENVIRONMENT , February 2009 , pp. 89 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brown, G. and McGuire, C. (1967), ‘A socially optimum pricing policy for a public water agency’, Water Resources Research 3: 33–43.Google Scholar
Coase, R. (1960), ‘The problem of social cost’, Journal of Law and Economics 3: 1–44.Google Scholar
Dandy, G., McBean, E., and Hutchinson, B. (1984), ‘A model for constrained optimum water pricing and capacity expansion’, Water Resources Research 20: 511–520.Google Scholar
Eckstein, O. (1958), Water-Resource Development: The Economics of Project Evaluation, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Fisher, F.M. and Huber-Lee, A. (2006), ‘Economics, water management, and conflict resolution in the Middle East and beyond’, Environment 48: 26–41.Google Scholar
Fisher, F.M., Huber-Lee, A., Arlosoroff, S., Eckstein, Z., Haddadin, M., Hamati, S.G., Jarrar, A., Jayyousi, A., Shamir, U., and Wesseling, H., with a special contribution by Salman, A.Z. and Al-Karablieh, E.K. (2005), Liquid Assets: An Economic Approach for Water Management and Conflict Resolution in the Middle East and Beyond, Washington: RFF Press.Google Scholar
Hirshleifer, J., DeHaven, J.C., and Milliman, J.W. (1960), Water Supply-Economics, Technology, and Policy, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Jenkins, M.W., Lund, J.R., and Howitt, R.E. (2003), ‘Using economic loss functions to value urban water scarcity in California’, Journal of the American Water Works Association 95: 58–70.Google Scholar
Jenkins, M.W., Lund, J.R., Howitt, R.E., Draper, A.J., Msangi, S.M., Tanaka, S.T., Ritzema, R.S., and Marques, G.F. (2004), ‘Optimization of California's water supply system: results and insights’, Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management 130: 271–280.Google Scholar
Maass, A., Hufschmidt, M.M., Dorfman, R., Thomas, H.A., and Marglin, S.A. (1962), Design of Water Resource Systems, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
McCarl, B. (1999), ‘Limiting pumping from the Edwards Aquifer: an economic investigation of proposals, water markets and spring flow guarantees’, Water Resources Research 35: 257–268.Google Scholar
Newlin, B.D., Jenkins, M.W., Lund, J.R., and Howitt, R.E. (2002), ‘Southern California water markets: potential and limitations’, Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management 128: 21–32.Google Scholar
Rogers, P.P. and Fiering, M.B. (1986), ‘Use of systems analysis in water management’, Water Resources Research 22: 146S–158S.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saliba, B.C. and Bush, D.B. (1987), Water Markets in Theory and Practice: Market Transfers, Water Values, and Public Policy, Boulder, CO, and London: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Wolf, A. (1994), ‘A hydropolitical history of the Nile, Jordan, and Euphrates River Basins’, in Biswas, A.S. (ed.), International Waters of the Middle East from Euphrates-Tigris to Nile, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar