IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/37407.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Saving the Mekong River Basin

Author

Listed:
  • Houba, Harold
  • Pham Do, Kim Hang
  • Zhu, Xueqin

Abstract

The Mekong River (MR) is shared by six countries: China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Over the years there have been both conflict and cooperation on managing the water resources to meet population growth, climate change and the desire for economic development. Currently, the MR Committee (MRC) has weak policy instruments. This paper exploits an axiomatic bargaining approach to examine how China and the MRC might negotiate effective joint management. We investigate what welfare improvements arise from strengthening the MRC and propose an alternative offering for the MR's joint management that is preferable to the status quo from the perspective of all nations. We show that there are little gains from cooperation unless international institutions provide a budget to promote cooperation with China. Alternatively, strengthening the MR Committee has the potential to achieve large welfare improvements.

Suggested Citation

  • Houba, Harold & Pham Do, Kim Hang & Zhu, Xueqin, 2011. "Saving the Mekong River Basin," MPRA Paper 37407, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:37407
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/37407/1/MPRA_paper_37407.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sophie Thoyer & Sylvie Morardet & Patrick Rio & Leo Simon & Rachael Goodhue & Gordon Rausser, 2001. "A Bargaining Model to Simulate Negotiations Between Water Users," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 4(2), pages 1-6.
    2. Houba, Harold, 2007. "Alternating offers in economic environments," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 96(3), pages 316-324, September.
    3. Harold Houba, 2008. "Computing Alternating Offers And Water Prices In Bilateral River Basin Management," International Game Theory Review (IGTR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 10(03), pages 257-278.
    4. Ringler, Claudia, 2001. "Optimal Water Allocation In The Mekong River Basin," Discussion Papers 18745, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    5. Haddad, Mohamed S., 2011. "Capacity choice and water management in hydroelectricity systems," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 168-177, 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. Harold Houba & Kim Hang Pham Do & Xueqin Zhu, 2018. "Options of optimal dam capacity under externality and uncertainty," Discussion Papers 1807, School of Economics and Finance, Massey University, New Zealand.

    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. Houba, Harold & Pham Do, Kim Hang & Zhu, Xueqin, 2012. "Transboundary Water Management: A joint management approach to the Mekong River Basin," 2012 Conference (56th), February 7-10, 2012, Fremantle, Australia 125063, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    2. Robyn Johnston & Vladimir Smakhtin, 2014. "Hydrological Modeling of Large river Basins: How Much is Enough?," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(10), pages 2695-2730, August.
    3. Lea Melnikovová, 2017. "Can Game Theory Help to Mitigate Water Conflicts in the Syrdarya Basin?," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 65(4), pages 1393-1401.
    4. Erik Ansink & Hans-Peter Weikard, 2012. "Sequential sharing rules for river sharing problems," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 38(2), pages 187-210, February.
    5. Rémy Delille & Jean-Christophe Pereau, 2014. "The Seawall Bargaining Game," Games, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-13, June.
    6. Robles, Jack, 2016. "Infinite horizon hydroelectricity games," Working Paper Series 5075, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.
    7. Osorio, Antonio, 2014. "A Sequential Allocation Problem: The Asymptotic Distribution of Resources," MPRA Paper 56690, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Marshall, Elizabeth P. & Weinberg, Marca, 2012. "Baselines in Environmental Markets: Tradeoffs Between Cost and Additionality," Economic Brief 138922, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    9. Meraj Sohrabi & Zeynab Banoo Ahani Amineh & Mohammad Hossein Niksokhan & Hossein Zanjanian, 2023. "A framework for optimal water allocation considering water value, strategic management and conflict resolution," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 1582-1613, February.
    10. Nicola Lettieri, 2016. "Computational Social Science, the Evolution of Policy Design and Rule Making in Smart Societies," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-17, May.
    11. Xie, Yang & Zilberman, David, 2015. "Water Storage Capacities versus Water Use Efficiency: Substitutes or Complements?," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205439, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    12. Sgobbi, Alessandra & Carraro, Carlo, 2011. "A Stochastic Multiple Players Multi-Issues Bargaining Model for the Piave River Basin," Strategic Behavior and the Environment, now publishers, vol. 1(2), pages 119-150, April.
    13. Márcia G. Alcoforado de Moraes & Yony Sampaio & José Almir Cirilo, 2006. "Integraçãoo dos Componentes Econômico e Hidrológico na Modelagem de Alocação Ótima de Água para Apoio a Gestão de Recursos Hídricos: Uma Aplicação na Bacia do Rio Pirapama," Economia, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics], vol. 7(2), pages 331-364.
    14. Gohar, Abdelaziz A. & Ward, Frank A., 2010. "Gains from expanded irrigation water trading in Egypt: An integrated basin approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 2535-2548, October.
    15. Walter, Teresa & Kloos, Julia & Tsegai, Daniel W., 2010. "Improving water use efficiency under worsening scarcity: Evidence from the Middle Olifants sub-basin in South Africa," Discussion Papers 97035, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    16. Gohar, Abdelaziz A. & Cashman, Adrian, 2016. "A methodology to assess the impact of climate variability and change on water resources, food security and economic welfare," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 51-64.
    17. Carraro, Carlo & Sgobbi, Alessandra, 2007. "Modelling Negotiated Decision Making: A Multilateral, Multiple Issues, Non-Cooperative Bargaining Model with Uncertainty," CEPR Discussion Papers 6424, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Carraro, Carlo & Marchiori, Carmen & Sgobbi, Alessandra, 2005. "Applications of negotiation theory to water issues," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3641, The World Bank.
    19. Hurt, Wesley & Osório, António (António Miguel), 2014. "A Sequential Allocation Problem: The Asymptotic Distribution of Resources," Working Papers 2072/237596, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    20. Jianan Qin & Xiang Fu & Shaoming Peng & Yuni Xu & Jie Huang & Sha Huang, 2019. "Asymmetric Bargaining Model for Water Resource Allocation over Transboundary Rivers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-23, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    transboundary river basin; Mekong River; optimization; Nash bargaining solution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R58 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Regional Development Planning and Policy
    • C78 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Bargaining Theory; Matching Theory
    • Q34 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Natural Resources and Domestic and International Conflicts
    • C71 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Cooperative Games

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:37407. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.