Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Role of Water Markets in Helping California Meet Its Future Water Needs: A Comparative Analysis

9422483 Holland本研究探讨了加州的新的水转移机构使用的工具，转移成本经济学（TCE）。 为了科普即将到来的水资源短缺，加州采取了许多旨在建立水市场的法律的改革：一种促进水权从农业向城市和环境用途转移的制度机制。 尽管不断进行改革，但区域间的远程水转移很少。 这几个实际的交易将是审查的重点：当事人，他们的利益，冲突，并在谈判和执行转让协议的决议，以及不断变化的制度环境。 实际结果将包括城市水区和环境利益可以合理地期望从最佳可行的水市场计划。 理论成果将包括TCE作为理解资源稀缺性和市场机制之间关系的替代或补充范式的讨论。 该提案寻求为四次前往农业和城市供水区的旅行提供资金，这些地区已经成功地转移了水。 交易的关键细节可在实际参与者的档案和回忆中找到。 现场访谈将提供证据，以检验与水市场相关的TCE预测。 在干旱的加州，历史上满足新的水需求的方法一直是技术性的：联邦、州和地方机构通过建造水坝、水库、渡槽和地下威尔斯井来增加自然河流的流量。 由于经济、环境、技术和政治方面的原因，预计额外的地表水开发不会为未来的需求提供大量的新资源。 在满足预计到2020年将面临的额外水需求方面，以市场为基础的改革促进了现有资源的有效利用，已被作为新建筑的主要替代办法。 学者、利益集团、政策制定者和政治家都称赞水市场是加州水资源分配决策中重要而积极的未来力量。 但尽管如此，在加州，只有三到四个长期的地区间水转移已经完成。 因此，期望/感知绩效与实际绩效之间似乎存在不连续性。 水市场战略的失败将对未来的供水战略产生严重后果。 本研究通过对加州水市场协议的分析，探讨了这种不连续性的原因以及水市场的效用。 运用交易费用经济学的观点对水市场战略进行了分析。 ***

9422483 Holdren This research examines California's new water transfer institutions using the tools of Transfer Cost Economics (TCE). To cope with impending water shortages, California has adopted numerous legal reforms aimed at creating a Water Market: an institutional mechanism to facilitate the transfer of water rights from agricultural to urban and environmental uses. In spite of continuing reforms, few long-range inter-regional water transfers have occurred. These few actual transactions will be the focus of examination: the parties, their interests, conflicts, and resolutions during negotiation and execution of transfer agreements, and the changing institutional milieu. Practical results will include what urban water districts and environmental interests can reasonably expect from the best feasible water market program. Theoretical results will include a discussion of TCE as an alternative or complementary paradigm for understanding the relationship between resource scarcity and market mechanisms. This proposal seeks funding for four trips to agricultural and urban water districts which have successfully transferred water. Critical details of transactions are found in actual participants files and recollections. Onsite interviews will provide the evidence with which to test the predictions of TCE related to water markets. %%% The historic approach to meeting new water demand in arid California has been a technical one: federal, state, and local agencies augmented natural river flows by building dams, reservoirs, aqueducts, and groundwater wells. For a host of economic, environmental, technical, and political reasons, additional surface water development is not expected to provide significant new resources for future needs. Market-based reforms which promote efficient use of existing resources have been offered as a primary alternative to new construction in meeting the projected additional demand for water that will be faced by 2020. Scholars, interest groups, policy make rs, and politicians have hailed water markets as a significant and positive future force in California water allocation decisions. But in spite of this fanfare, only three or four longterm, interegional water transfers have been concluded in California. Thus there appears to be a discontinuity between expectation/perceived performance and actual performance. Failure of the water markets strategy will have serious consequences for future water supply strategies. This research addresses the reasons for this discontinuity and the utility of water markets through an examination of the California water market agreements. It uses the insights of Transaction Cost Economics analyze the water markets strategy. ***