The Development of Water Rights in Colorado

David Penn () and Joachim Zietz

No 200404, Working Papers from Middle Tennessee State University, Department of Economics and Finance

Abstract: Property rights will be more carefully defined and enforced when the value of a resource rises or the probability of losing the resource increases. A simple model is estimated on litigation data for Colorado to test this hypothesis. According to the model, the number of water rights cases will rise when the demand for water increases or the supply of water decreases. Several versions of such a model with a deterministic and, alternatively, a stochastic trend component are estimated. The estimates are robust across model type and confirm the theoretical conclusions on the determinants of water rights cases.

Keywords: Water Rights; Property Rights; Western U.S. History; Structural Time Series (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N41 N51 Q25 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004-09
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mts:wpaper:200404

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