Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) sets the standard in water reform. Water use is determined by the set of property rights that determines the spatial reliability of supply. A water user (irrigator or environmental manager) has a portfolio of rights that provides a given level of water supply. All production systems need to be divided into those that generate output from variable costs (annual crops) or those that generate output from capital (perennials) as the behavioural response to keep capital alive differs. Climate change will alter the existing reliability of property rights, but policy makers are still to determine how.
This PhD explores this problem by developing a model of the MDB based on the state contingent approach.
It is essential that you read:
•Loch etal. 2020, (g)etting to the point: The problem with water risk and uncertainty. Water Resources and Economics, 32, 100154. Doi: 10.1016/j.wre.2019.100154.
The conditions of the award are here:
It is sugested that you contact the supervisor
