WEP Editors’ Choice for 2024
The associate editors and the Editor-in-chief of the journal Water Economics and Policy have selected the following accepted papers to be highlighted in the “WEP Editors’ Choice for 2024” from all papers accepted in 2024. The list below includes the authors’ names, the titles, the journal issue, the link, and the reasoning.
Valeriia Chukaeva, Julia de Frutos Cachorro, and Jesús Marín-Solano, Groundwater Extraction for Irrigation Purposes: The Case of Asymmetric Players. Issue 10.2
Paper presents several methodological novelties in the field of game theory, considering asymmetric players (in this case farmers using groundwater for irrigation) in terms of differences in pumping costs, crop productivity and especially time preferences. Also, the reviewers praised it as a paper with high potential. Finally, the first author is a young researcher at the beginning of her career, deserving this award which would be meaningful to her.
Paula Villegas, Manuel Alejandro Cardenete, and L. Dary Beltran, Economic Impact of the Drought in Spain: Measurement for the Adoption of Measures. Issue 10.3
Paper applies methods that other water scholars may find quite powerful. Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) methods have been a powerful research tool in development economics because of their ability to analyze key linkages between sectors and distributional impacts of policies. SAMs are demand-driven models and have been used rarely to examine supply constraints such as those caused by drought and applied in this paper. Indeed, the approach used in the paper allows mapping drought effects to commonly understood economic impacts, such as impacts on GDP.
Thomas van Huyssteen, Djiby Thiam, and Sanderine Nonhebel, The Determinants of Household Water Demand: A Focus on Water, Energy, and Food Prices. Issue 10.4
Paper develops a theory and a relevant application in South Africa for explaining demand for water by including in addition to the traditional variables of price and household characteristics, also process of energy and food prices. While the authors emphasize the relevance to developing countries, the analytical framework is very relevant to any economic development level. Finally, the first author is a young researcher at the beginning of his career, deserving this award which would be meaningful to him.
Yuanzao Zhu, Christian Klassert, Bernd Klauer, and Erik Gawel, Understanding the Water-Energy Nexus at the Private Household Level: An Economic Perspective. Issue 10.4
Paper introduces an innovative conceptual economic framework of water-energy services, using a household production model, to derive and analyze household-level water and energy linked demand. This framework, of interest to other resource economists, introduces the conceptual basis and motivation for policies aimed to develop sustainable water and energy management strategies. It departs from the hypothesis that household demand for one nexus resource (water and energy) depends not only on its own price, but also on the price of the other nexus resource, as well as household characteristics.