Water as a Social and Economic Good: How to Put the Principle into Practice

Abstract

"The potential role of economic tools in providing socially acceptable public decisions is not widely appreciated, particularly in many highly regulated situations. Furthermore, this paper suggests, contrary to the public perception, that with the improvement of the use of economic tools, the role for government regulation in managing water as an economic good is increased, not decreased. The paper is divided into three sections following this introduction: Section I presents the general principles and methodologies for estimating costs and values in the water sector. In section II, some illustrative estimates of costs and values in urban, industrial, and agricultural sectors are presented based on available data. Section III provides a summary of results and conclusions."