IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/ajagec/v95y2013i1p94-116.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effects of Well Management and the Nature of the Aquifer on Groundwater Resources

Author

Listed:
  • Qiuqiong Huang
  • Jinxia Wang
  • Scott Rozelle
  • Stephen Polasky
  • Yang Liu

Abstract

We compare groundwater use under collective well management in China, where village leaders allocate water among households, and under private well management where farmers either pump from their own wells or buy water from wells owned by other farmers. Villages are divided into connected or isolated groups depending on whether there are lateral groundwater flows between aquifers underlying a village and neighboring ones. In rural China, households under collective well management use less water. Even under collective management, households located in connected villages use more water, indicating that the connectedness of the aquifers may undermine leaders' incentives to conserve water. Copyright 2013, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Qiuqiong Huang & Jinxia Wang & Scott Rozelle & Stephen Polasky & Yang Liu, 2013. "The Effects of Well Management and the Nature of the Aquifer on Groundwater Resources," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 95(1), pages 94-116.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ajagec:v:95:y:2013:i:1:p:94-116
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ajae/aas076
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Naughton-Treves, Lisa & Sanderson, Steven, 1995. "Property, politics and wildlife conservation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(8), pages 1265-1275, August.
    2. Nicholas Brozović & David Sunding & David Zilberman, 2006. "Optimal Management of Groundwater over Space and Time," Natural Resource Management and Policy, in: Renan-Ulrich Goetz & Dolors Berga (ed.), Frontiers in Water Resource Economics, chapter 0, pages 109-135, Springer.
    3. Wang, J. & Huang, J. & Blanke, A. & Huang, Q. & Rozelle, S., 2007. "The development, challenges and management of groundwater in rural China," IWMI Books, Reports H040041, International Water Management Institute.
    4. Naomi Zeitouni & Ariel Dinar, 1997. "Mitigating negative water quality and quality externalities by joint mangement of adjacent aquifers," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 9(1), pages 1-20, January.
    5. Daniel W. Bromley, 1982. "Land and Water Problems: An Institutional Perspective," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 64(5), pages 834-844.
    6. Daniel W. Bromley & Devendra P. Chapagain, 1984. "The Village Against the Center: Resource Depletion in South Asia," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 66(5), pages 868-873.
    7. Luo, Renfu & Zhang, Linxiu & Huang, Jikun & Rozelle, Scott, 2007. "Elections, fiscal reform and public goods provision in rural China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 583-611, September.
    8. Eli Feinerman & Keith C. Knapp, 1983. "Benefits from Groundwater Management: Magnitude, Sensitivity, and Distribution," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 65(4), pages 703-710.
    9. Poteete, Amy R. & Ostrom, Elinor, 2008. "Fifteen Years of Empirical Research on Collective Action in Natural Resource Management: Struggling to Build Large-N Databases Based on Qualitative Research," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 176-195, January.
    10. Saak, Alexander E. & Peterson, Jeffrey M., 2007. "Groundwater use under incomplete information," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 214-228, September.
    11. Vermillion, Douglas Lynn, 1997. "Impacts of irrigation management transfer: A review of the evidence," IWMI Research Reports 52798, International Water Management Institute.
    12. Wang, Jinxia & Huang, Jikun & Rozelle, Scott, 2005. "Evolution of tubewell ownership and production in the North China Plain," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 49(2), pages 1-19.
    13. David Levhari & Leonard J. Mirman, 1980. "The Great Fish War: An Example Using a Dynamic Cournot-Nash Solution," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 11(1), pages 322-334, Spring.
    14. Lohmar, Bryan & Wang, Jinxia & Rozelle, Scott & Huang, Jikun & Dawe, David, 2003. "China'S Agricultural Water Policy Reforms: Increasing Investment, Resolving Conflicts, And Revising Incentives," Agricultural Information Bulletins 33643, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    15. Halvorsen, Robert & Palmquist, Raymond, 1980. "The Interpretation of Dummy Variables in Semilogarithmic Equations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 474-475, June.
    16. Baland, Jean-Marie & Platteau, Jean-Philippe, 1999. "The Ambiguous Impact of Inequality on Local Resource Management," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 773-788, May.
    17. Agrawal, Arun, 2001. "Common Property Institutions and Sustainable Governance of Resources," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(10), pages 1649-1672, October.
    18. Agrawal, Arun & Gibson, Clark C., 1999. "Enchantment and Disenchantment: The Role of Community in Natural Resource Conservation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 629-649, April.
    19. Edella Schlager & William Blomquist & Shui Yan Tang, 1994. "Mobile Flows, Storage, and Self-Organized Institutions for Governing Common-Pool Resources," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 70(3), pages 294-317.
    20. Daniel W. Bromley, 1982. "Land and Water Problems: An Institutional Perspective," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 64(5), pages 834-844.
    21. Aggarwal, Rimjhim M., 2000. "Possibilities and Limitations to Cooperation in Small Groups: The Case of Group-Owned Wells in Southern India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(8), pages 1481-1497, August.
    22. Renan-Ulrich Goetz & Dolors Berga (ed.), 2006. "Frontiers in Water Resource Economics," Natural Resource Management and Policy, Springer, number 978-0-387-30056-6, March.
    23. Baland, Jean-Marie & Platteau, Jean-Philippe, 1997. "Coordination problems in local-level resource management," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 197-210, June.
    24. Campbell, Bruce & Mandondo, Alois & Nemarundwe, Nontokozo & Sithole, Bevlyne & De JonG, Wil & Luckert, Marty & Matose, Frank, 2001. "Challenges to Proponents of Common Property Recource Systems: Despairing Voices from the Social Forests of Zimbabwe," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 589-600, April.
    25. Sakurai, Takeshi & Rayamajhi, Santosh & Pokharel, Ridish K. & Otsuka, Keijiro, 2004. "Efficiency of timber production in community and private forestry in Nepal," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(4), pages 539-561, August.
    26. Giordano, Mark & Villholth, Karen, 2007. "The agricultural groundwater revolution: opportunities and threats to development," IWMI Books, Reports H040039, International Water Management Institute.
    27. Baland, Jean-Marie & Platteau, Jean-Philippe, 1998. "Wealth Inequality and Efficiency in the Commons, Part II: The Regulated Case," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 50(1), pages 1-22, January.
    28. repec:bla:econom:v:51:y:1984:i:204:p:393-400 is not listed on IDEAS
    29. Cai, Ximing & Ringler, Claudia & You, Jiing-Yun, 2008. "Substitution between water and other agricultural inputs: Implications for water conservation in a River Basin context," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 38-50, May.
    30. Provencher Bill & Burt Oscar, 1993. "The Externalities Associated with the Common Property Exploitation of Groundwater," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 139-158, March.
    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. Eric C. Edwards, 2016. "What Lies Beneath? Aquifer Heterogeneity and the Economics of Groundwater Management," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(2), pages 453-491.
    2. Shaneyfelt, Calvin R. & Schoengold, Dr. Karina, 2014. "Irrigation Demand in a Changing Climate: Using disaggregate data to predict future groundwater use," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170586, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Godwin Kwabla Ekpe, 2024. "Modeling and evaluating marginal pumping fees in groundwater commons: do varying scarcity levels matter?," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 26(3), pages 563-590, July.
    4. Lijuan Zhang & Jinxia Wang & Guangsheng Zhang & Qiuqiong Huang, 2020. "Whether climatic factors influence the frequency of punctual on-demand deliveries of groundwater for irrigation? Empirical study in the North China Plain," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 269-287, March.
    5. Guilfoos, Todd & Pape, Andreas D. & Khanna, Neha & Salvage, Karen, 2013. "Groundwater management: The effect of water flows on welfare gains," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 31-40.
    6. Smith, Steven M., 2018. "Economic incentives and conservation: Crowding-in social norms in a groundwater commons," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 147-174.
    7. Shanxia Sun & Juan P. Sesmero & Karina Schoengold, 2016. "The role of common pool problems in irrigation inefficiency: a case study in groundwater pumping in Mexico," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 47(1), pages 117-127, January.

    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. Molle, Francois & Closas, Alvar, 2017. "Groundwater governance: a synthesis. [Project report of the Groundwater Governance in the Arab World - Taking Stock and Addressing the Challenges]," IWMI Reports 273351, International Water Management Institute.
    2. Stergios Athanassoglou & Glenn Sheriff & Tobias Siegfried & Woonghee Huh, 2012. "Optimal Mechanisms for Heterogeneous Multi-Cell Aquifers," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 52(2), pages 265-291, June.
    3. Gaston Giordana & Marc Willinger, 2013. "Fixed instruments to cope with stock externalities: an experimental evaluation," Chapters, in: John A. List & Michael K. Price (ed.), Handbook on Experimental Economics and the Environment, chapter 13, pages 367-403, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Aggarwal, Rimjhim & Narayan, Tulika A., 2000. "Does Inequality Lead To Greater Efficiency In The Use Of Local Commons? The Role Of Strategic Investments In Capacity," Working Papers 28572, University of Maryland, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    5. Poteete, Amy R. & Ostrom, Elinor, 2004. "In pursuit of comparable concepts and data about collective action," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 215-232, December.
    6. Wang, Yahua & Chen, Chunliang & Araral, Eduardo, 2016. "The Effects of Migration on Collective Action in the Commons: Evidence from Rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 79-93.
    7. Fekadu Beyene, 2009. "Collective action in water‐point management: The case of pastoral and agropastoral communities in eastern Ethiopia," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 33(3), pages 175-188, August.
    8. Baland, Jean-Marie & Platteau, Jean-Philippe, 2003. "Economics of common property management regimes," Handbook of Environmental Economics, in: K. G. Mäler & J. R. Vincent (ed.), Handbook of Environmental Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 4, pages 127-190, Elsevier.
    9. Pfeiffer, Lisa & Lin, C.-Y. Cynthia, 2012. "Groundwater pumping and spatial externalities in agriculture," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 16-30.
    10. Pamela Katic, 2015. "Groundwater Spatial Dynamics and Endogenous Well Location," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 29(1), pages 181-196, January.
    11. Schultz, Bill, 2020. "Resource management and joint-planning in fragmented societies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    12. Sirisha C. Naidu, 2005. "Heterogeneity and Common Pool Resources: Collective Management of Forests in Himachal Pradesh, India," Others 0511004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Zhang, Lijuan & Wang, Jinxia & Huang, Jikun & Rozelle, Scott, 2008. "Development of Groundwater Markets in China: A Glimpse into Progress to Date," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 706-726, April.
    14. Aggarwal, Rimjhim M. & Narayan, Tulika A., 2004. "Does inequality lead to greater efficiency in the use of local commons? The role of strategic investments in capacity," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 163-182, January.
    15. Saudamini Das & Stephen C. Smith, 2012. "Awareness As An Adaptation Strategy For Reducing Mortality From Heat Waves: Evidence From A Disaster Risk Management Program In India," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(02), pages 1-29.
    16. Phoebe Koundouri, 2004. "Current Issues in the Economics of Groundwater Resource Management," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(5), pages 703-740, December.
    17. Mark Purcell & J. Christopher Brown, 2005. "Against the local trap: scale and the study of environment and development," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 5(4), pages 279-297, October.
    18. Wegmann, Johannes & Mußhoff, Oliver, 2019. "Groundwater management institutions in the face of rapid urbanization – Results of a framed field experiment in Bengaluru, India," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 1-1.
    19. H. Carolyn Peach Brown & James P. Lassoie & Steven A. Wolf, 2007. "An analytic approach to structuring co–management of community forests in Cameroon," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 7(2), pages 135-154, April.
    20. Santiago J. Rubio Jorge & Begoña Casino, 1997. "Strategic behavior and efficiency in a groundwater pumping differential game," Working Papers. Serie EC 1997-18, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment
    • Q25 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Water
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements

    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:oup:ajagec:v:95:y:2013:i:1:p:94-116. 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeaaea.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.