Owens Valley Revisited

Gary D. Libecap is Donald Bren Professor of Corporate Environmental Management, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and Economics Department, University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Libecap is a Research Fellow and Associate at the Hoover Institution, the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the Property and Environment Research Center. He previously was Anheuser-Busch Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies, Economics, and Law and Director of the Karl Eller Center of the Eller College of Mangement at the University of Arizona.

". . . Libecap constructs a convincing revisionist history of the Owens Valley land and water purchases by the City of Los Angeles in the early 20th century."—Ellen Hanak, Public Policy Institute of California "Libecap provides a stimulating new view of the infamous Owens Valley Water Purchase. Using scientific tools and objectively weighing the evidence, the book gives the reader an accurate understanding of this controversial and fascinating history."—Mary Shirley, The Ronald Coase Institute "This book is an important contribution to the recent literature on institutions, property rights, and transaction costs. Libecap's careful correction of the historical record is a welcome addition to the ongoing debate about water transfer policy."—P. J. Hill, Wheaton College "In his latest book Owen's Valley Revisited, Libecap takes on one of the most enduring myths in western water history—the famous transfer of water from Owen's Valley to Los Angeles that occurred in the early part of the twentieth century The result is impressive: using extensive archival data, Libecap manages to convincingly demonstrate that the popular 'rap and pillage' myth surrounding Owen's Valley is in actuality much more complicated than generally perceived."—H-Net "Gary Libecap has produced a new economic analysis of the century-long, acrimonious relations between the Los Angeles's Department of Water and Power (LADWP), and Owen's Valley, a region of California that supplies water to Los Angeles His book belongs on the shelf of any water resources economist, as well as on the shelves of historians seeking multiple perspectives of the American West."—Haddad "Owen's Valley Revisited fills an important need for anyone who wants a balanced picture of the water history of Los Angeles in the Owen's Valley and Mono Basins. It is concise and yet, thorough. For any fair commentary on the LADWP Owen's Valley history, no writer should begin without first reading Libecap's Owen's Valley Revisited."—Water & Power Associates, Inc. Newsletter "Scholars of the Los Angeles-Owens Valley controversy will be most interested in the revisionist approach of Gary D. Libecap's Owens Valley Revisited . . . The book does provide a chronology and a solid bibliography as well as several maps, graphs, and tables that students of this story will find useful."—Randal Beeman, Southern California Quarterly

• @fmct:Contents @toc4:Acknowledgmentsxxx @toc2:Chapter 1Owens Valley and Western Water 1 Chapter 2The Owens Valley Syndrome00 Chapter 3The History of the Owens Valley-to-Los Angeles Water and Land Exchange00 Chapter 4The Bargaining Costs of Land and Water Rights Exchanges in Owens Valley00 Chapter 5An Assessment of the Owens Valley Transfer: The Distribution of the Gains of Exchange and the Origin of the Notion of "Theft"00 Chapter 6Water Rights and Water Re-allocation: Los Angeles and the Owens Valley, 1935200600 Chapter 7Water Rights and Water Re-allocation: Los Angeles and the Mono Basin, 1935200600 Chapter 8The Costs of Judicial Re-allocation of Water Rights and the Public Trust Doctrine00 Chapter 9Concluding Thoughts: Owens Valley and Western Water @toc4:Notes00 References00 Index00