Institutional Path Dependence in Climate Adaptation: Coman's "Some Unsettled Problems of Irrigation"
Katharine Coman's "Some Unsettled Problems of Irrigation," published in March 1911 in the first issue of the <em>American Economic Review</em>, addressed issues of water supply, rights, and organization. These same issues have relevance today, in the face of growing concern about the availability of fresh water worldwide. The central point of this article is that appropriative water rights and irrigation districts that emerged in the American West in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in response to aridity to facilitate agricultural water delivery, use, and trade raise the transaction costs today of water markets. These markets are vital for smooth reallocation of water to higher-valued uses elsewhere in the economy and for flexible response to greater hydrological uncertainty. This institutional path dependence illustrates how past arrangements to meet conditions of the time constrain contemporary economic opportunities. They cannot be easily significantly modified or replaced ex post. (JEL N51, Q15, Q25, Q54)
Year of publication: |
2011
|
---|---|
Authors: | Libecap, Gary D. |
Published in: |
American Economic Review. - American Economic Association - AEA. - Vol. 101.2011, 1, p. 64-80
|
Publisher: |
American Economic Association - AEA |
Saved in:
Online Resource
Saved in favorites
Similar items by person
-
Libecap, Gary D., (2007)
-
High Noon on the Western Range: A Property Rights Analysis of the Johnson County War
Mcferrin, Randy, (2007)
-
US land policy, property rights, and the dust bowl of the 1930s
Libecap, Gary D., (2001)
- More ...