Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Negotiation over Water Quality: Evidence from Brazilian Water Basin Committees

设计有效的水管理机制是减少跨管辖边界污染外部性的关键组成部分。水权和管理是地方、国家和国际各级的一个重要问题。跨境污染溢出在从约旦河流域到科罗拉多河的用户群体之间造成了政治困难。加强水管理改善了当地居民的生活质量，减少了跨界冲突。水流域委员会是环保主义者普遍倡导的一种改善水资源管理的方法。这一博士论文项目利用巴西分散的水管理的独特结构来评估水流域委员会的影响，并审查提高或降低其有效性的政治机制。本文利用巴西全国2000个水质监测站的40,000多个水质观测数据，评估了1990年至2007年间成立的112个流域委员会对巴西S河水质管理的影响。广泛影响：开发新的管理工具可以促进跨司法管辖区的资源合作，并改善依赖资源的当地人口的生活质量。该项目的另一个影响是提供一个大型数据库，可用于研究发展中国家的水质、用水、跨司法管辖区讨价还价以及水污染对健康的影响等其他问题。

The design of effective mechanisms for water management is a key component of reducing pollution externalities across jurisdictional boundaries. Water rights and management are an important issue at the local, national and international levels. Cross border pollution spillovers have created political difficulties between user groups from the Jordan River basin to the Colorado River. Enhanced water management improves the quality of life of local populations and reduces cross-border conflicts. Water basin committees are commonly advocated by environmentalists as a method of improving the management of water resources. This doctoral dissertation project takes advantage of the unique structure of decentralized water management in Brazil to estimate the effects of water basin committees and examine political mechanisms which enhance or reduce their effectiveness. This paper uses over 40,000 water quality observations from 2000 water quality monitoring stations across Brazil to estimate the effect that the 112 water basin committees which were created between 1990 and 2007 have had on the management of water quality in Brazil?s rivers.Broader Impacts: Development of new management tools can improve cross-jurisdictional cooperation over resources and improve the quality of life of the local populations who depend on the resources. An additional impact of this project will be to make available a large database which can be used to study additional questions on water quality, water use, cross-jurisdictional bargaining, and the health effects of water pollution in a developing country setting.