New Institutional Economics, Governance and the Performance of Water Institutions in India
There has been substantial water resources development for agriculture in India but the emphasis has been mainly on the technical side - the building of the necessary institutions required for effective management of the resource has received little attention. Many believe that water resource management in India is heading for a crisis unless the institutions and related policies are rapidly transformed. In this light, the study examines key features of water institutions in India, applying new institutional economics fundamentals, as well as management theories of good governance. The study uses a survey of 29 water institutions and 450 farm households conducted across three states in India which face water scarcity and have attempted to address it through institutional efforts and innovations. The findings indicate and help identify important characteristics of institutional design for creating better institutions. Findings indicate that derived from new institutional economics fundamentals, the stress on features such as clear objectives, good interaction, adaptiveness, appropriateness of scale, and compliance ability are very important for institutional performance. They reduce transaction cost and promote cooperative solutions, which are key contributions of good institutions. Delivery of good governance by effective institutionalization of technical, organizational, and political rationalities are also very important. This requires empowerment of bodies such as the general body, chairman, managing committee and secretary in the institutions. The results bring out some significant associations and ways for enhancing institutional performance in water resource management in India.
Robust Institutions for Sustainable Water Markets: A Survey of the Literature and the Way Forward
This paper discusses a framework for analyzing robust institutions for water markets drawn on the new institutional economics school of thoughts which is based on Williamson, North, Coase and Ostrom theories on transaction cost economics, property rights and collective actions. Based on these theories, we review the evolution and development of water reforms and markets in countries such as Australia, USA (California and Colorado), Chile and in Spain. Based on the lessons learned from the Spanish and international experience on water markets, a list of robust recommendations for the improvement of water markets in Spain is proposed. These include among others, not only the definition of secure water rights, through the registration of rights or recognition of environment as a legitimate user, but also the monitoring of water trading activities, including the collection of information for prices and quantities or cost-benefit analysis for quantifying benefits and externalities. Finally, based on Sharma’s approach (2012) a new robust water governance model for Spain is proposed in which the highest priority is given to the role of legal and political institutions and second priority to environmental, economic and social needs. We hope that the framework presented in this paper will function as a tool for researchers and policy makers in Spain and other European countries to understand how water markets can be further developed to be economically and environmentally efficient, and socially accepted.
Marriage, sex, and the first birth interval: the quiet revolution in Asia.
The authors argue that under certain conditions changes in coital frequency do influence fertility. The evidence they present is indirect based on trends in early marital fertility in Korea Malaysia and Taiwan. They offer standard sociodemographic explanations for these trends including later age at marriage improved levels of nutrition and changes in breastfeeding and contraceptive practices and find them wanting for various reasons. The biometric literature is used to show that the effect of coital frequency on the increase in early marital conceptions is plausible; ethnographic illustrations suggest that the movement from the traditionally arranged to the romantically arranged marriage is largely responsible for greater coital frequency. They conclude that a very quiet sexual revolution has been occurring in Asia perhaps more far reaching and profound than the very vocal sexual revolution that has been occurring in the West. The increases in early marital conceptions have been 3 fold or more in some instances. From a broader perspective this paper argues that coital frequency an intermediate variable that has been virtually ignored by demographers can and does have an effect on the pace and level of fertility. The biometric evidence for this effect has been known for some time but heretofore actual behavioral examples have been lacking. The paper further emphasizes the multifaceted nature of the contemporary fertility transitions occurring in the developed world. Differences in coital frequency are very likely a component of differences in levels of natural fertility that have existed and thus not all of the changes taking place lead to lower levels of fertility. The modernizing forces leading to higher rates of coital frequency are in fact leading to higher fertility levels. The aspect of marriage having primary demographic importance is sexual activity--when sexual activity starts when it ends and coital frequency during a sexual union. (summaries in FRE SPA)