Why It Is Not Unreasonable For Farmers To Over-Irrigate Crops in California – And What To Do About It

Wednesday, May 15th

12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.

CHASS INTN 4023

900 University Ave

Riverside, CA 92507

There is concern to reduce the amount of water used for growing crops in California. In principle this could be brought about by irrigating fewer acres, by growing different crops, and/or by applying less irrigation water per acre. A common belief among economists is that these changes would be induced if irrigation water cost more. This is true in economic theory. I argue that it is not true in practice. I explain why the assumptions made in economic theory do not hold in practice, leading to the likelihood that over-irrigation of crops may not be economically unreasonable. The main implication for policy is that focusing on the pricing of water as a policy tool is unlikely to be adequate.

SPEAKERS:

• Michael Hanemann, Professor of Economics, Arizona State University

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