TY - JOUR
T1 - A note on contradictions in Australian Water Policy
AU - Crase, Lin
AU - Pawsey, Nicholas
AU - O'Keefe, Sue
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - The success of Australia's water markets is now well documented and confirms the hypothesised usefulness of water markets as a policy tool, at least in the context of places like the Murray–Darling Basin. In this article, we reflect on the theoretical benefits of water markets as a point of reference against which to scrutinise the current penchant of government to subsidise irrigation infrastructure in efforts to address over-allocation. We conclude that this approach results in a serious contradiction, unless there are grounds for believing that government has insights into the dynamic efficiency of the irrigation industry that exceed the coordination power of the market.
AB - The success of Australia's water markets is now well documented and confirms the hypothesised usefulness of water markets as a policy tool, at least in the context of places like the Murray–Darling Basin. In this article, we reflect on the theoretical benefits of water markets as a point of reference against which to scrutinise the current penchant of government to subsidise irrigation infrastructure in efforts to address over-allocation. We conclude that this approach results in a serious contradiction, unless there are grounds for believing that government has insights into the dynamic efficiency of the irrigation industry that exceed the coordination power of the market.
UR - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1759-3441.12037/abstract
U2 - 10.1111/1759-3441.12037
DO - 10.1111/1759-3441.12037
M3 - Article
VL - 32
SP - 353
EP - 359
JO - Economic Papers of the Economic Society of Australia
JF - Economic Papers of the Economic Society of Australia
SN - 0812-0439
IS - 3
ER -