IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/iimkoz/v5y2016i1p22-40.html

Reforming Watershed Management Institutions for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth: Role of Institutional Interaction and Participative Decision Making

Author

Listed:
  • Dinesh Jain
  • Vasant P. Gandhi

Abstract

The rainfed areas of rural India often lack the services of able water management institutions. Thus, management of water in such areas is not a stand-alone activity but is significant for the overall development of the area, which also takes into account natural resource management, productivity enhancement and livelihood supporting activities. This is commonly referred to as watershed development (WSD). These WSD programmes are run on a massive scale and have been dovetailed with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). But, even after massive investment, these programmes or the institutions did not generate effective performance. There is an urgent need of good institutional arrangement that reduces transaction costs and favours co-operative solutions. In this context, the literature on new institutional economics identifies good interaction as one of the most important features of effective institutions. This article uses new institutional economics, theories of governance, management and organizational design to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the role of institutional interaction and participative decision-making in generating enhanced performance and sustainable outcome. Conceptually , the demand for interaction depends upon generic and specific drivers, and the supply of good interaction would come through structures, processes and governance features of institutions and also through consideration of different rationalities (e.g., technical and social). This article involved an exploratory research followed by an in-depth survey of 30 local watershed institutions in three districts of Andhra Pradesh. The findings indicate that the quantity of interaction alone is not sufficient in generating effective institutional performance. Quality of institutional interaction based on various rationalities is equally important. The study may help in designing the institutions involved in WSD in a better way for inclusive and sustainable outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Dinesh Jain & Vasant P. Gandhi, 2016. "Reforming Watershed Management Institutions for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth: Role of Institutional Interaction and Participative Decision Making," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 5(1), pages 22-40, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:iimkoz:v:5:y:2016:i:1:p:22-40
    DOI: 10.1177/2277975215618030
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2277975215618030
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2277975215618030?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. Philip Keefer & Mary M. Shirley, 2000. "Formal versus informal institutions in economic development," Chapters, in: Claude Ménard (ed.), Institutions, Contracts and Organizations, chapter 10, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Gandhi, Vasant P., 2010. "A Conceptual Framework for Studying Institutions in Watershed Development," IIMA Working Papers WP2010-11-04, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    3. Claude Ménard (ed.), 2000. "Institutions, Contracts and Organizations," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1921.
    4. Oliver E. Williamson, 2000. "The New Institutional Economics: Taking Stock, Looking Ahead," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(3), pages 595-613, September.
    5. Marshall, Graham R., 2003. "Towards a Resource Economics for Adaptive Managers," 2003 Conference (47th), February 12-14, 2003, Fremantle, Australia 57921, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    6. R. H. Coase, 2013. "The Problem of Social Cost," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 837-877.
    7. Stephen Dovers, 2001. "Institutions for Sustainability," Economics and Environment Network Working Papers 0101, Australian National University, Economics and Environment Network.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nabin Dhungana & Chun-Hung Lee & Popular Gentle, 2025. "Assessing mountain communities' willingness to adaptation strategies for watershed management in changing climate," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 178(8), pages 1-31, August.

    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. Kherallah, Mylene & Kirsten, Johann F, 2002. "The New Institutional Economics: Applications For Agricultural Policy Research In Developing Countries," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 41(2).
    2. Roberto Dell’Anno, 2010. "Institutions and human development in the Latin American informal economy," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 207-230, September.
    3. Alex Trew, 2012. "Contracting Institutions and Development," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 3(3).
    4. Stephanie Rosenkranz & Patrick W. Schmitz, 2007. "Can Coasean Bargaining Justify Pigouvian Taxation?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 74(296), pages 573-585, November.
    5. Darcy W E Allen, 2020. "When Entrepreneurs Meet:The Collective Governance of New Ideas," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number q0269, March.
    6. Coggan, Anthea & Buitelaar, Edwin & Whitten, Stuart & Bennett, Jeff, 2013. "Factors that influence transaction costs in development offsets: Who bears what and why?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 222-231.
    7. Domicián Máté & András István Kun & Veronika Fenyves, 2016. "The Impacts of Trademarks and Patents on Labour Productivity in the Knowledge-Intensive Business Service Sectors," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 18(41), pages 104-104, February.
    8. Aseem Kaul & Jiao Luo, 2018. "An economic case for CSR: The comparative efficiency of for‐profit firms in meeting consumer demand for social goods," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(6), pages 1650-1677, June.
    9. Kim, Jongwook & Mahoney, Joseph T., 2008. "A Strategic Theory of the Firm as a Nexus of Incomplete Contracts: A Property Rights Approach," Working Papers 08-0108, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    10. McCann, Laura, 2013. "Transaction costs and environmental policy design," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 253-262.
    11. Rok Spruk & Mitja Kovac, 2018. "Inefficient Growth," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 9(2).
    12. Caballero-Miguez, Gonzalo & Fernández-González, Raquel, 2015. "Institutional analysis, allocation of liabilities and third-party enforcement via courts: The case of the Prestige oil spill," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 90-101.
    13. Willems, Jannes J. & Busscher, Tim & Woltjer, Johan & Arts, Jos, 2018. "Co-creating value through renewing waterway networks: A transaction-cost perspective," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 26-35.
    14. Schmitz, Patrick W., 2021. "Optimal ownership of public goods under asymmetric information," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    15. Button, Kenneth, 2013. "The 2011 Martin Kunz Memorial Lecture: Air transport, the environment and institutional economics," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 1-7.
    16. Yochanan Shachmurove, 2012. "Failing Institutions Are at the Core of the U.S. Financial Crisis," PIER Working Paper Archive 12-040, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    17. Prateek Goorha & Vijay Mohan, 2016. "Toward a theory of Smart Institutions," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 5(1), pages 1-23, December.
    18. Jean‐Michel Glachant, 2008. "La Deregulation Des Industries De Reseaux Comme Politique Institutionnelle De Creation De Marches Et De Mecanismes De Gouvernance," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 79(3‐4), pages 487-525, September.
    19. Blaine G. Robbins, 2011. "Neither government nor community alone: A test of state-centered models of generalized trust," Rationality and Society, , vol. 23(3), pages 304-346, August.
    20. Jeff D. Makholm, 2012. "Marginal Costs with Wings a Ball and Chain Pipelines and Institutional Foundations for the U.S. Gas Market," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:sae:iimkoz:v:5:y:2016:i:1:p:22-40. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.