IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/wepxxx/v06y2020i02ns2382624x20500034.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaluating Adaptive Efficiency in Environmental Water Recovery: Application of a Framework for Institutional Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Graham R. Marshall

    (School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Australia)

Abstract

The first empirical application of an established framework for evaluating the adaptive efficiency of policy and project options — the Institutional Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (ICEA) framework — is documented in this paper. The application involves cost-effectiveness comparison of six projects for environmental water recovery in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia, managed by the New South Wales (NSW) Government under three programs: The Living Murray Initiative; the NSW Wetland Recovery Program; and the NSW Rivers Environmental Restoration Program. Focussing primarily on one of the projects — the Darling Anabranch Pipeline Project (DAPP) — allows an in-depth account to be presented of the ICEA framework’s application. Abatement and transaction costs, and public and private subsets of these costs, were accounted for in the applications. The adaptive efficiency of the DAPP (a “water-saving project”) is found provisionally — i.e., without accounting quantitatively for institutional lock-in costs — to exceed that of the five other environmental water recovery projects (including two “market-purchase projects”) evaluated. This finding is significant given a tendency for economists to presume that environmental water recovery is generally achieved more efficiently through market-purchase projects. With water management, and environmental management more broadly, exposed to increasing uncertainty, adaptive efficiency will grow in importance as a metric for economic evaluation. The application of the ICEA framework documented in this paper can guide researchers in applying this metric to evaluations of projects and policies implemented in, or proposed for, this domain.

Suggested Citation

  • Graham R. Marshall, 2020. "Evaluating Adaptive Efficiency in Environmental Water Recovery: Application of a Framework for Institutional Cost-Effectiveness Analysis," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 6(02), pages 1-28, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:wepxxx:v:06:y:2020:i:02:n:s2382624x20500034
    DOI: 10.1142/S2382624X20500034
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S2382624X20500034
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1142/S2382624X20500034?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
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. McCann, Laura & Colby, Bonnie & Easter, K. William & Kasterine, Alexander & Kuperan, K.V., 2005. "Transaction cost measurement for evaluating environmental policies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(4), pages 527-542, March.
    2. Williamson, Oliver E, 1979. "Transaction-Cost Economics: The Governance of Contractural Relations," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 22(2), pages 233-261, October.
    3. Williamson, Oliver E., 2010. "Transaction Cost Economics: The Natural Progression," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 86(3), pages 215-226.
    4. Krutilla, Kerry & Krause, Rachel, 2011. "Transaction Costs and Environmental Policy: An Assessment Framework and Literature Review," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 4(3–4), pages 261-354, April.
    5. Crase, Lin & O'Keefe, Sue & Dollery, Brian, 2013. "Talk is cheap, or is it? The cost of consulting about uncertain reallocation of water in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 206-213.
    6. Marshall, Graham R., 2013. "Transaction Costs, Collective Action And Adaptation In Managing Social-Ecological Systems," 2013 Conference (57th), February 5-8, 2013, Sydney, Australia 152166, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    7. R. Quentin Grafton, 2010. "How to Increase the Cost-effectiveness of Water Reform and Environmental Flows in the Murray-Darling Basin," Agenda - A Journal of Policy Analysis and Reform, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics, vol. 17(2), pages 17-40.
    8. Marshall, Graham R., 2013. "Transaction costs, collective action and adaptation in managing complex social–ecological systems," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 185-194.
    9. Ray Challen, 2000. "Institutions, Transaction Costs and Environmental Policy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1961.
    10. Marris, Robin & Mueller, Dennis C, 1980. "The Corporation, Competition, and the Invisible Hand," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 18(1), pages 32-63, March.
    11. Pelikan, Pavel, 1986. "Institutions, Self-Organization, and Adaptive Efficiency: A Dynamic Assessment of Private Enterprise," Working Paper Series 158, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    12. Mettepenningen, E. & Beckmann, V. & Eggers, J., 2011. "Public transaction costs of agri-environmental schemes and their determinants--Analysing stakeholders' involvement and perceptions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(4), pages 641-650, February.
    13. Dustin Evan Garrick, 2015. "Water Allocation in Rivers under Pressure," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14857.
    14. Ning Wang, 2007. "Measuring Transaction Costs: Diverging Approaches, Contending Practices," Division of Labor & Transaction Costs (DLTC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 2(02), pages 111-146.
    15. North, Douglass C, 1994. "Economic Performance through Time," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 359-368, June.
    16. McCann, Laura, 2013. "Transaction costs and environmental policy design," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 253-262.
    17. R. Quentin Grafton & Sarah Ann Wheeler, 2018. "Economics of Water Recovery in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 10(1), pages 487-510, October.
    18. Carlos Mario Gómez Gómez & C. D. Pérez-Blanco & David Adamson & Adam Loch, 2018. "Managing Water Scarcity at a River Basin Scale with Economic Instruments," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 4(01), pages 1-31, January.
    19. Georgina W. Njiraini & Djiby Racine Thiam & Anthea Coggan, 2017. "The Analysis of Transaction Costs in Water Policy Implementation in South Africa: Trends, Determinants and Economic Implications," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(01), pages 1-30, January.
    20. Garrick, Dustin & Whitten, Stuart M. & Coggan, Anthea, 2013. "Understanding the evolution and performance of water markets and allocation policy: A transaction costs analysis framework," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 195-205.
    21. Commission, Productivity, 2010. "Market Mechanisms for Recovering Water in the Murray-Darling Basin," Research Reports, Productivity Commission, Government of Australia, number 40.
    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. Phan, Thu-Ha Dang & Brouwer, Roy & Hoang, Long Phi & Davidson, Marc David, 2017. "A comparative study of transaction costs of payments for forest ecosystem services in Vietnam," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 141-149.
    2. Thiel, Andreas & Schleyer, Christian & Hinkel, Jochen & Schlüter, Maja & Hagedorn, Konrad & Bisaro, Sandy & Bobojonov, Ihtiyor & Hamidov, Ahmad, 2016. "Transferring Williamson's discriminating alignment to the analysis of environmental governance of social-ecological interdependence," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 159-168.
    3. 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.
    4. Shahab, Sina & Clinch, J. Peter & O’Neill, Eoin, 2018. "Accounting for transaction costs in planning policy evaluation," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 263-272.
    5. Carlos Mario Gómez Gómez & C. D. Pérez-Blanco & David Adamson & Adam Loch, 2018. "Managing Water Scarcity at a River Basin Scale with Economic Instruments," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 4(01), pages 1-31, January.
    6. McCann, Laura, 2013. "Transaction costs and environmental policy design," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 253-262.
    7. Garrick, Dustin & Whitten, Stuart M. & Coggan, Anthea, 2013. "Understanding the evolution and performance of water markets and allocation policy: A transaction costs analysis framework," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 195-205.
    8. Fan, Shengyue & Yang, Jinfei & Liu, Wenwen & Wang, He, 2019. "Institutional Credibility Measurement Based on Structure of Transaction Costs: A Case Study of Ongniud Banner in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 212-225.
    9. Marshall, Graham R., 2013. "Transaction Costs, Collective Action And Adaptation In Managing Social-Ecological Systems," 2013 Conference (57th), February 5-8, 2013, Sydney, Australia 152166, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    10. Krutilla, Kerry & Alexeev, Alexander, 2014. "The Political Transaction Costs and Uncertainties of Establishing Environmental Rights," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 299-309.
    11. Phan, Thu-Ha Dang & Brouwer, Roy & Davidson, Marc David, 2017. "A Global Survey and Review of the Determinants of Transaction Costs of Forestry Carbon Projects," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 1-10.
    12. Bellanger, Manuel & Fonner, Robert & Holland, Daniel S. & Libecap, Gary D. & Lipton, Douglas W. & Scemama, Pierre & Speir, Cameron & Thébaud, Olivier, 2021. "Cross-sectoral externalities related to natural resources and ecosystem services," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    13. Pérez-Blanco, C.D. & Gutiérrez-Martín, C., 2017. "Buy me a river: Use of multi-attribute non-linear utility functions to address overcompensation in agricultural water buyback," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 6-20.
    14. Lundmark, Robert, 2022. "Time-adjusted transaction costs for energy renovations for single-family house-owners," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    15. Crase, Lin & O'Keefe, Sue & Dollery, Brian, 2013. "Talk is cheap, or is it? The cost of consulting about uncertain reallocation of water in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 206-213.
    16. Marshall, Graham R., 2013. "Transaction costs, collective action and adaptation in managing complex social–ecological systems," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 185-194.
    17. Nantongo, Mary & Vatn, Arild, 2019. "Estimating Transaction Costs of REDD+," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 1-11.
    18. Pannell, David J. & Roberts, Anna M. & Park, Geoff & Alexander, Jennifer, 2013. "Improving environmental decisions: A transaction-costs story," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 244-252.
    19. Shahab, Sina & Clinch, J. Peter & O'Neill, Eoin, 2019. "An Analysis of the Factors Influencing Transaction Costs in Transferable Development Rights Programmes," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 409-419.
    20. Soliev, Ilkhom & Theesfeld, Insa & Wegerich, Kai & Platonov, Alexander, 2017. "Dealing with “Baggage” in Riparian Relationship on Water Allocation: A Longitudinal Comparative Study from the Ferghana Valley," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 148-162.

    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:wsi:wepxxx:v:06:y:2020:i:02:n:s2382624x20500034. 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: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.worldscinet.com/wep/wep.shtml .

    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.