Measuring Water Misallocation in California

Will Rafey

No 35176, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper proposes and applies new methods to value water rights and assess misallocation across competing uses in California, the world’s fourth largest economy. The empirical strategy combines detailed microdata on farms, evapotranspiration, historical water rights, and the hydrological flow network in order to isolate sources of inefficiency within the hydrological network, assess distributional implications of water access under current property rights, and evaluate alternative mechanisms for water reallocation.

JEL-codes: D23 D61 L1 L2 Q1 Q24 Q25 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-05
Note: EEE IO
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