Water Economics in the Anthropocene

Water is often treated as a consumer good or a producer good; rarely is it seen as a scarce asset or natural capital. Significant differences emerge when water is treated as a reproducible commodity versus a nonrenewable asset, and this book will integrate both. Physical scarcity is compounded by economic scarcity when water is under- or mispriced; the authors construct real and shadow prices to reflect physical scarcity and environmental opportunity costs, and supply expansion is squared against demand management. Water cannot be treated in isolation of the energy or food systems, and this book develops a theoretical model to deal with the complex interrelationships among the three systems.