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Resistance to the Regulation of Common Resources in Rural Tunisia

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  • Liu, Xiaoying
  • Sarr, Mare
  • Swanson, Timothy

Abstract

We examine the effect of the introduction of uniform water-charging for aquifer management and provide evidence using a survey-based choice experiment of agricultural water users in rural Tunisia. Theoretically, we show that the implementation of the proposed second-best regulation would result both in efficiency gains and in distributional effects in favour of small landholders. Empirically, we find that resistance to the introduction of an effective water-charging regime is greatest amongst the largest landholders. Resistance to the regulation of common resources may be rooted in the manner in which heterogeneity might determine the distributional impact of different management regimes.

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  • Liu, Xiaoying & Sarr, Mare & Swanson, Timothy, 2014. "Resistance to the Regulation of Common Resources in Rural Tunisia," RFF Working Paper Series dp-14-17-efd, Resources for the Future.
    • Handle: RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-14-17-efd
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    commons; water; aquifer; heterogeneity; Tunisia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • Q11 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Aggregate Supply and Demand Analysis; Prices
    • Q24 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Land
    • Q25 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Water

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