IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/econpa/v29y2010i1p41-47.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Cautionary Note on the Use of Socio‐Economic Analyses in Water Planning

Author

Listed:
  • Lin Crase

Abstract

The Murray–Darling Basin Authority is required to deliver a Basin Plan that is consistent with the Commonwealth Water Act 2007. As part of the development of this plan the Authority has sought input on the methodology used to develop sustainable diversion limits, ostensibly designed to maintain and/or improve the ecological health of the Basin. Regrettably, the suggested approach implies mixing multiple and conflicting objectives into a single policy response. In this article some of the problems with this approach are highlighted. In particular questions surrounding the objective of improving ecological outcomes are raised. I conclude that the Plan is unlikely to deliver on the ecological objectives, particularly if the socio‐economic impacts and the less‐rigorous techniques for enumerating them are given excessive weight in decision making. A preferred approach would allow for separate interventions to deliver on the social and economic fronts.

Suggested Citation

  • Lin Crase, 2010. "A Cautionary Note on the Use of Socio‐Economic Analyses in Water Planning," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 29(1), pages 41-47, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:econpa:v:29:y:2010:i:1:p:41-47
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1759-3441.2010.00054.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1759-3441.2010.00054.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1759-3441.2010.00054.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeff Connor & Kurt Schwabe & Darran King & David Kaczan & Mac Kirby, 2009. "Impacts of climate change on lower Murray irrigation ," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 53(3), pages 437-456, July.
    2. Leo Dobes & Jeff Bennett, 2009. "Multi-Criteria Analysis: "Good Enough" for Government Work?," Agenda - A Journal of Policy Analysis and Reform, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics, vol. 16(3), pages 7-30.
    3. -, 2009. "The economics of climate change," Sede Subregional de la CEPAL para el Caribe (Estudios e Investigaciones) 38679, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    4. Peter B. Dixon & Maureen T. Rimmer & Glyn Wittwer, 2009. "Modelling the Australian government's buyback scheme with a dynamic multi-regional CGE model," Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre Working Papers g-186, Victoria University, Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre.
    5. Alan Randall, 1981. "Property Entitlements And Pricing Policies For A Maturing Water Economy," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 25(3), pages 195-220, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mushtaq, Shahbaz & Cockfield, Geoff & White, Neil & Jakeman, Guy, 2014. "Modelling interactions between farm-level structural adjustment and a regional economy: A case of the Australian rice industry," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 34-42.
    2. Grafton, Rupert & Jiang, Qiang, 2011. "Economic effects of water recovery on irrigated agriculture in the Murray-Darling Basin," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 55(4), pages 1-13.
    3. repec:bla:canjag:v:58:y:2010:i:s1:p:403-409 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Crase, Lin, 2017. "Drought special edition: introductory comments," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 61(3), July.
    5. Jiang, Qiang & Grafton, R. Quentin, 2012. "Economic effects of climate change in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 10-16.
    6. Quiggin, John & Adamson, David & Chambers, Sarah & Schrobback, Peggy, 2009. "Climate change, mitigation and adaptation: the case of the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia," Risk and Sustainable Management Group Working Papers 149878, University of Queensland, School of Economics.
    7. Amine Chekireb & Julio Goncalves & Hubert Stahn & Agnes Tomini, 2021. "Private exploitation of the North-Western Sahara Aquifer System," Working Papers halshs-03457972, HAL.
    8. Dobes Leo & Jotzo Frank & Stern David I., 2014. "The Economics of Global Climate Change: A Historical Literature Review," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 65(3), pages 281-320, December.
    9. Zhou, Li & Turvey, Calum G., 2014. "Climate change, adaptation and China's grain production," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 72-89.
    10. Dono, Gabriele & Cortignani, Raffaele & Giraldo, Luca & Pasqui, Massimiliano & Roggero, Pier Pao, 2014. "Income Impacts of Climate Change: Irrigated Farming in the Mediterranean and Expected Changes in Probability of Favorable and Adverse Weather Conditions," Journal of International Agricultural Trade and Development, Journal of International Agricultural Trade and Development, vol. 63(3).
    11. John Quiggin & David Adamson & Sarah Chambers & Peggy Schrobback, 2010. "Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Adaptation: The Case of Irrigated Agriculture in the Murray–Darling Basin in Australia," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 58(4), pages 531-554, December.
    12. Dobes, Leo, 2012. "Adaptation to Climate Change: Formulating Policy under Uncertainty," Working Papers 249390, Australian National University, Centre for Climate Economics & Policy.
    13. repec:bla:canjag:v:58:y:2010:i:s1:p:531-554 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Juliane Haensch & Sarah Ann Wheeler & Alec Zuo, 2021. "Explaining permanent and temporary water market trade patterns within local areas in the southern Murray–Darling Basin," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 65(2), pages 318-348, April.
    15. Kahil, Mohamed Taher & Albiac, Jose & Dinar, Ariel, 2014. "The Debate on Water Policies: Evidence from Drought in Spain," Working Papers 206460, Agrifood Research and Technology Center (CITA-Government of Aragon), Department of Agricultural Economics.
    16. Adamson, David & Loch, Adam & Schwabe, Kurt, 2017. "Adaptation responses to increasing drought frequency," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 61(3), July.
    17. World Bank, 2011. "Climate Change and Fiscal Policy : A Report for APEC," World Bank Publications - Reports 2734, The World Bank Group.
    18. Dono, Gabriele & Cortignani, Raffaele & Doro, Luca & Ledda, Luigi & Roggero, PierPaolo & Giraldo, Luca & Severini, Simone, 2011. "Possible Impacts of Climate Change on Mediterranean Irrigated Farming Systems," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 114436, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Lokonon, Boris Odilon & Savadogo, Kimseyinga & Mbaye, Ahmadou, 2015. "Assessing the impacts of climate shocks on farm performance and adaptation responses in the Niger basin of Benin," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 10(3), pages 1-16, September.
    20. Lin Crase & Bethany Cooper, 2017. "The Political Economy of Drought: Legacy and Lessons from Australia's Millennium Drought," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 36(3), pages 289-299, September.
    21. Claire Settre & Jeff Connor & Sarah Ann Wheeler, 2017. "Reviewing the Treatment of Uncertainty in Hydro-economic Modeling of the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(03), pages 1-35, July.
    22. Bradley Franklin & Keith C. Knapp & Kurt A. Schwabe, 2017. "A Dynamic Regional Model of Irrigated Perennial Crop Production," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(01), pages 1-30, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:econpa:v:29:y:2010:i:1:p:41-47. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/esausea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.