The Evolution of Markets for Water (Theory And Practice in Australia).

• Author: Sokoloff, Eugene A.
• Position: FURTHER READING - Book review

THE EVOLUTION OF MARKETS FOR WATER (THEORY AND PRACTICE IN AUSTRALIA)

Jeff Bennett, ed.

(Cheltenham, England: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005), 187 pages.

To many economists, it is an article of faith that markets are the optimal mechanisms for allocating scarce resources and ensuring efficient use. But what if the resource in question is a life-sustaining good? What happens when that resource is water--a commodity with both stock and flow characteristics?

Despite enjoying the third-highest per capita annual rainfall in the world, Australia faces the growing threat of water scarcity As the continent's population grows, seasonal and geographic fluctuations in water supplies pose a challenge to irrigation agriculture and domestic water needs. In The Evolution of Markets for Water a group of legal scholars and economists engage in a complex debate on the potential for market mechanisms to help deal with this problem. Although water markets already operate on a limited basis in Australia, the questions under contention are fundamental. Before markets can begin to operate, property rights to water resources must be "defined, defendable, and tradeable."

Bennett's book addresses each of these areas...