The Effects of Volumetric Pricing Policy on Farmers’ Water Management Institutions and Their Water Use : The Case of Water User Organization in an Irrigation System in Hubei, China

We use original water user group (WUG) data from a reservoir irrigation system in China to examine the effect of water pricing policies on farmers’ water saving behaviors. The introduction of volumetric water pricing at the group level, to replace area-based pricing, induces institutional change to...

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Main Authors:	Kajisa, Kei, Dong, Bin
Format:	Journal Article
Published:	Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank 2018
Subjects:	INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE COLLECTIVE ACTION SURFACE IRRIGATION SOCIAL CAPITAL WATER IRRIGATION SANITATION WATER SUPPLY
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30135

id	okr-10986-30135
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-301352021-05-25T10:54:40Z The Effects of Volumetric Pricing Policy on Farmers’ Water Management Institutions and Their Water Use : The Case of Water User Organization in an Irrigation System in Hubei, China Kajisa, Kei Dong, Bin INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE COLLECTIVE ACTION SURFACE IRRIGATION SOCIAL CAPITAL WATER IRRIGATION SANITATION WATER SUPPLY We use original water user group (WUG) data from a reservoir irrigation system in China to examine the effect of water pricing policies on farmers’ water saving behaviors. The introduction of volumetric water pricing at the group level, to replace area-based pricing, induces institutional change to prevent each member's overuse of water when the volumetric price levels are moderate. Depending on the initial conditions, the multiple pathways of change lead to new institutional arrangements, with all of them contributing to water savings. However, when the price is set high enough, many farmers exit a WUG for private irrigation. This tendency is associated with an increased probability that the remaining members do not undertake institutional change and that they do not end up saving water. This may be due to the increased management difficulties among the remaining members whose fields are separated by former members who have now opted out for private irrigation across the WUG. As a result, we do not find evidence that the reservoir water is saved at high volumetric price levels. 2018-08-03T20:26:17Z 2018-08-03T20:26:17Z 2017-02 Journal Article World Bank Economic Review 1564-698X http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30135 CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research East Asia and Pacific China
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
topic	INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE COLLECTIVE ACTION SURFACE IRRIGATION SOCIAL CAPITAL WATER IRRIGATION SANITATION WATER SUPPLY
spellingShingle	INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE COLLECTIVE ACTION SURFACE IRRIGATION SOCIAL CAPITAL WATER IRRIGATION SANITATION WATER SUPPLY Kajisa, Kei Dong, Bin The Effects of Volumetric Pricing Policy on Farmers’ Water Management Institutions and Their Water Use : The Case of Water User Organization in an Irrigation System in Hubei, China
geographic_facet	East Asia and Pacific China
description	We use original water user group (WUG) data from a reservoir irrigation system in China to examine the effect of water pricing policies on farmers’ water saving behaviors. The introduction of volumetric water pricing at the group level, to replace area-based pricing, induces institutional change to prevent each member's overuse of water when the volumetric price levels are moderate. Depending on the initial conditions, the multiple pathways of change lead to new institutional arrangements, with all of them contributing to water savings. However, when the price is set high enough, many farmers exit a WUG for private irrigation. This tendency is associated with an increased probability that the remaining members do not undertake institutional change and that they do not end up saving water. This may be due to the increased management difficulties among the remaining members whose fields are separated by former members who have now opted out for private irrigation across the WUG. As a result, we do not find evidence that the reservoir water is saved at high volumetric price levels.
format	Journal Article
author	Kajisa, Kei Dong, Bin
author_facet	Kajisa, Kei Dong, Bin
author_sort	Kajisa, Kei
title	The Effects of Volumetric Pricing Policy on Farmers’ Water Management Institutions and Their Water Use : The Case of Water User Organization in an Irrigation System in Hubei, China
title_short	The Effects of Volumetric Pricing Policy on Farmers’ Water Management Institutions and Their Water Use : The Case of Water User Organization in an Irrigation System in Hubei, China
title_full	The Effects of Volumetric Pricing Policy on Farmers’ Water Management Institutions and Their Water Use : The Case of Water User Organization in an Irrigation System in Hubei, China
title_fullStr	The Effects of Volumetric Pricing Policy on Farmers’ Water Management Institutions and Their Water Use : The Case of Water User Organization in an Irrigation System in Hubei, China
title_full_unstemmed	The Effects of Volumetric Pricing Policy on Farmers’ Water Management Institutions and Their Water Use : The Case of Water User Organization in an Irrigation System in Hubei, China
title_sort	effects of volumetric pricing policy on farmers’ water management institutions and their water use : the case of water user organization in an irrigation system in hubei, china
publisher	Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank
publishDate	2018
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30135
_version_	1764471296361496576

The Effects of Volumetric Pricing Policy on Farmers’ Water Management Institutions and Their Water Use : The Case of Water User Organization in an Irrigation System in Hubei, China

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