waterandeconomics水和经济学.pdfVIP

Water and Economics 水和经济学 Annette Huber-Lee visiting scholar Overview 概览 • Why use an economic approach? 为什 么遵循经济的途径？ • Are water markets the answer? 水市场 是有效的方法吗？ • Role for economic analysis 经济分析的 作用 • Application of economics in the Middle East 水经济学在中东的应用 • Conclusions 结论 Why economics? Water is scarce • Water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century • An increasing number of regions are chronically short of water • By 2025, 1.8 million people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions • The situation will be exacerbated as rapidly growing urban areas place heavy pressure on neighboring water resources What defines scarcity? • Imbalances between availability (supply) and demand • Degradation of groundwater and surface water quality • Inter-sectoral competition • Interregional and international conflicts Economics • Economics is the science of allocation of scarce resources and the examination of tradeoffs • Markets can be an efficient way to allocate scarce resources • Are water markets therefore the answer? Are markets the answer? • It is often true that the efficient way to allocate resources is through a free market. • But that is not always true. That result requires: - Markets to be competitive – many small sellers and buyers - All social benefits and costs to be private benefits and costs • These requirements are not met in the case of water Role for economic analysis Rationale • Even with these limitations, economics still has a majo