Monopoly Power and Distribution in Fragmented Markets

Monopoly Power and Distribution in Fragmented Markets PDF Author: Hanan G. Jacoby
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 47

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Book Description
Evidence from Pakistan's Punjab indicates that monopoly power in the market for groundwater (irrigation water extracted using private tubewells) results in a substantial resource misallocation. But despite this substantial misallocation of groundwater, a welfare analysis shows that monopoly pricing of groundwater has limited effects on equity and efficiency. Policies aimed at eliminating monopoly pricing would do little to help the poorest farmers.Using data from Pakistan's Punjab, Jacoby, Murgai, and Rehman examine monopoly power in the market for groundwater - irrigation water extracted using private tubewells - a market characterized by barriers to entry and spatial fragmentation. Simple theory predicts that tubewell owners should price-discriminate in favor of their own share tenants. And this analysis of individual groundwater transactions over an 18-month period confirms such price discrimination.And among those studied, tubewell owners and their tenants use considerably more groundwater on their plots than do other farmers. Jacoby, Murgai, and Rehman also provide evidence that monopoly pricing of groundwater leads to compensating - albeit small - reallocations of canal water, which farmers exchange in a separate informal market. Despite the substantial misallocation of groundwater, a welfare analysis shows that monopoly pricing has limited effects on equity and efficiency. In the long run, a policy aimed at eliminating monopoly pricing would do little to help the poorest farmers.This paper - a product of Rural Development, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to examine the role of policy and policy reform on rural development. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project Market Development and Allocative Efficiency: Irrigation Water in the Punjab.

Monopoly Power and Distribution in Fragmented Markets

Monopoly Power and Distribution in Fragmented Markets PDF Author: Hanan G. Jacoby
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 47

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Book Description
Evidence from Pakistan's Punjab indicates that monopoly power in the market for groundwater (irrigation water extracted using private tubewells) results in a substantial resource misallocation. But despite this substantial misallocation of groundwater, a welfare analysis shows that monopoly pricing of groundwater has limited effects on equity and efficiency. Policies aimed at eliminating monopoly pricing would do little to help the poorest farmers.Using data from Pakistan's Punjab, Jacoby, Murgai, and Rehman examine monopoly power in the market for groundwater - irrigation water extracted using private tubewells - a market characterized by barriers to entry and spatial fragmentation. Simple theory predicts that tubewell owners should price-discriminate in favor of their own share tenants. And this analysis of individual groundwater transactions over an 18-month period confirms such price discrimination.And among those studied, tubewell owners and their tenants use considerably more groundwater on their plots than do other farmers. Jacoby, Murgai, and Rehman also provide evidence that monopoly pricing of groundwater leads to compensating - albeit small - reallocations of canal water, which farmers exchange in a separate informal market. Despite the substantial misallocation of groundwater, a welfare analysis shows that monopoly pricing has limited effects on equity and efficiency. In the long run, a policy aimed at eliminating monopoly pricing would do little to help the poorest farmers.This paper - a product of Rural Development, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to examine the role of policy and policy reform on rural development. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project Market Development and Allocative Efficiency: Irrigation Water in the Punjab.

Monopoly Power and Distribution in Fragmented Markets

Monopoly Power and Distribution in Fragmented Markets PDF Author: Hanan Jacoby
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Groundwater
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description
Evidence from Pakistan's Punjab indicates that monopoly power in the market for groundwater (irrigation water extracted using private tubewells) results in a substantial resource misallocation. But despite this substantial misallocation of groundwater, a welfare analysis shows that monopoly pricing of groundwater has limited effects on equity and efficiency. Policies aimed at eliminating monopoly pricing would do little to help the poorest farmers.

Inequality Convergence

Inequality Convergence PDF Author: Martin Ravallion
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 28

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Book Description
Is income inequality tending to fall in countries with high inequality and to rise in those where inequality is low? Is there a process of convergence toward medium-level inequality?

Taming the Anarchy

Taming the Anarchy PDF Author: Tushaar Shah
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136524037
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
In 1947, British India-the part of South Asia that is today's India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh-emerged from the colonial era with the world's largest centrally managed canal irrigation infrastructure. However, as vividly illustrated by Tushaar Shah, the orderly irrigation economy that saved millions of rural poor from droughts and famines is now a vast atomistic system of widely dispersed tube-wells that are drawing groundwater without permits or hindrances. Taming the Anarchy is about the development of this chaos and the prospects to bring it under control. It is about both the massive benefit that the irrigation economy has created and the ill-fare it threatens through depleted aquifers and pollution. Tushaar Shah brings exceptional insight into a socio-ecological phenomenon that has befuddled scientists and policymakers alike. In systematic fashion, he investigates the forces behind the transformation of South Asian irrigation and considers its social, economic, and ecological impacts. He considers what is unique to South Asia and what is in common with other developing regions. He argues that, without effective governance, the resulting groundwater stress threatens the sustenance of the agrarian system and therefore the well being of the nearly one and a half billion people who live in South Asia. Yet, finding solutions is a formidable challenge. The way forward in the short run, Shah suggests, lies in indirect, adaptive strategies that change the conduct of water users. From antiquity until the 1960‘s, agricultural water management in South Asia was predominantly the affair of village communities and/or the state. Today, the region depends on irrigation from some 25 million individually owned groundwater wells. Tushaar Shah provides a fascinating economic, political, and cultural history of the development and use of technology that is also a history of a society in transition. His book provides powerful ideas and lessons for researchers, historians, and policy

Allocative inefficiency and farm-level constraints in irrigated agriculture in Pakistan

Allocative inefficiency and farm-level constraints in irrigated agriculture in Pakistan PDF Author: Sanval Nasim
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 67

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Book Description
In this paper, we estimate the allocative inefficiency of groundwater in Pakistani agriculture and compare it across a set of farm-level constraints, using a panel dataset of rural households. The farm-level constraints include tenure, farm size, access to surface water and location on a watercourse. We use a stochastic approach, based on a system of equations to estimate both the technical efficiency of farms and the allocative efficiency of groundwater use. The allocation of surface irrigation water in Pakistan is fixed per unit of land, so its allocative inefficiency cannot be estimate. Therefore, we will treat surface water as a fixed factor and focus mainly on groundwater. The analysis sheds light on the utilization of irrigation water across a set of farm-specific characteristics. It also provides a basis for a psssible redesign of water policy. The results in this paper constitute the empirical basis for policy work that we will focus on in our future work.

Water Markets for the 21st Century

Water Markets for the 21st Century PDF Author: K. William Easter
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9401790817
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
This book evaluates the history, the present and the future of water markets on 5 continents, beginning with the institutional underpinnings of water markets and factors influencing transaction costs. The book examines markets in seven countries and three different U.S. states, ranging from village-level water markets in Oman to basin wide formal water markets in Australia's Murray-Darling River basin. Introductory chapters on the background of water markets and on transaction costs and policy design are followed by chapter length discussion of water markets as an adaptive response to climate change and of supply reliability in a changing climate. Case studies describe a variety of facets of the design and function of markets around the world: California, Chile, Spain, Oman, Australia, Canada, India and China. In analyzing these real-world examples of markets, the contributors explore water rights and trading of rights between agricultural and urban sectors and the principles and function of option markets. They discuss different sized approaches, from large scale, ministry-level administration of markets to informal arrangements among farmers in the same village, or groups of villages which allocate water without large investment in management and infrastructure. Discussion includes questions of why water market practices have not expanded more rapidly in arid places. The book discusses mechanisms for resolving conflicts between water rights holders as well as between water right holders and third parties impacted by water trades and whether or not public ownership of water rights or use rights should trump private ownership and under what condition. Also covered are new and expanding categories of water use, beyond human consumption, agriculture and industry to new technologies ranging from extracting natural gas from shale to producing biofuels. The book concludes with suggestions for future water markets and offers a realistic picture of how they might change water use and distribution practices going forward.

IBSS: Economics: 2002 Vol.51

IBSS: Economics: 2002 Vol.51 PDF Author: Compiled by the British Library of Political and Economic Science
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134340036
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 675

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Book Description
First published in 1952, the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology) is well established as a major bibliographic reference for students, researchers and librarians in the social sciences worldwide. Key features * Authority: Rigorous standards are applied to make the IBSS the most authoritative selective bibliography ever produced. Articles and books are selected on merit by some of the world's most expert librarians and academics. *Breadth: today the IBSS covers over 2000 journals - more than any other comparable resource. The latest monograph publications are also included. *International Coverage: the IBSS reviews scholarship published in over 30 languages, including publications from Eastern Europe and the developing world. *User friendly organization: all non-English titles are word sections. Extensive author, subject and place name indexes are provided in both English and French. Place your standing order now for the 2003 volumes of the the IBSS Anthropology: 2002 Vol.48 December 2003: 234x156: Hb: 0-415-32634-6: £195.00 Economics: 2002 Vol.51 December 2003: 234x156: Hb: 0-415-32635-4: £195.00 Political Science: 2002 Vol.51 December 2003: 234x156: Hb: 0-415-32636-2: £195.00 Sociology: 2002 Vol.52 December 2003: 234x156: Hb: 0-415-32637-0: £195.00

International Bibliography of Economics

International Bibliography of Economics PDF Author: Compiled by the British Library of Political and Economic Science
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 0415326354
Category : Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 676

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Book Description
IBSS is the essential tool for librarians, university departments, research institutions and any public or private institution whose work requires access to up-to-date and comprehensive knowledge of the social sciences.

Economics of the Environment

Economics of the Environment PDF Author: Robert N. Stavins
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1788972066
Category : Environmental policy
Languages : en
Pages : 779

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Book Description
Economics of the Environment, Seventh Edition is a compendium of the best, most timely articles by a dream team of environmental economists, together with an original introductory chapter by the editor. Now in its seventh edition, Economics of the Environment serves as a valuable supplement to environmental economics text books and as a stand-alone reference book of key, up-to-date readings from the field. Edited by Robert N. Stavins, the book covers the core areas of environmental economics courses as taught around the world; and the included authors are the top scholars in the field. Overall, more than half of the chapters are new to this edition while the rest have remained seminal works.

Measuring Services Trade Liberalization and Its Impact on Economic Growth

Measuring Services Trade Liberalization and Its Impact on Economic Growth PDF Author: Aaditya Mattoo
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Desarrollo economico
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
Countries that fully liberalize their telecommunications and financial services sectors may be able to expect economic growth rates up to 1.5 percentage point higher than rates in other countries.