Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T08:09:28.110Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Saving a river: a joint management approach to the Mekong River Basin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2012

Harold Houba ,
Kim Hang Pham Do  and
Xueqin Zhu
Harold Houba
Affiliation:
Department of Econometrics, VU University Amsterdam, and Tinbergen Institute, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]
Kim Hang Pham Do
Affiliation:
School of Economics and Finance, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand. E-mail: [email protected]
Xueqin Zhu
Affiliation:
Environmental Economics and Natural Resources Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Mekong River Basin (MRB) is a trans-boundary river shared by six countries. The governance by the Mekong River Commission (MRC) of the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) is weak. This study investigates the welfare effects in the year 2030 arising from strengthening the MRC's governance versus joint management of the entire MRB. Without joint management, strengthening the MRC's governance has a huge potential to achieve welfare gains and it requires that the interests of all stakeholders be equally balanced. A bargaining approach shows that the LMB has no incentive to negotiate with China and is better off strengthening the MRC's governance instead. If such strengthening could be realized, further welfare gains of joint management by a wider and stronger MRC, including China, would be very small.

Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 18 , Special Issue 1: Strategic behaviour and environmental commons , February 2013 , pp. 93 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ansink, E. (2009), ‘Game-theoretic models of water allocation in trans-boundary river basins’, Ph.D. thesis, Wageningen University. Wageningen, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Bearden, B. (2009), ‘The legal regime of the Mekong River: a look back and some proposals for the way ahead’, Water Policy 12(6): 798–821.Google Scholar
Binmore, K., Rubinstein, A., and Wolinsky, A. (1986), ‘The Nash bargaining solution in economic modeling’, Rand Journal of Economics 17: 176–188.Google Scholar
Browder, G. (2000), ‘An analysis of the negotiations for the 1995 Mekong agreement’, International Negotiation 5: 237–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, I. (2009), The Mekong: Biophysical Environment of an International River Basin, Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
China Statistical Yearbook (2011), National Bureau of Statistics of China, [Available at] http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/.Google Scholar
Dinar, S. and Dinar, A. (2003), ‘Recent developments in the literature on conflict and cooperation in international shared water’, Natural Resources Journal 43: 1217–1287.Google Scholar
Dinar, A., Ratner, A., and Yaron, D. (1992), ‘Evaluating cooperative game theory in water resources’, Theory and Decision 32: 1–20.Google Scholar
FAO (2012), AQUASTAT – FAO's Information System on Water and Agriculture, [Available at] http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/main/index.stm.Google Scholar
Grumbine, R., Dore, J., and Xu, J. (2012), ‘Mekong hydropower: drivers of change and governance challenges’, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 10(2): 91–98.Google Scholar
Haddad, M. (2011), ‘Capacity choice and water management in hydroelectricity systems’, Energy Economics 33: 168–177.Google Scholar
Houba, H. (2008), ‘Computing alternating offers and water prices in bilateral river basin management’, International Game Theory Review 10: 257–278.Google Scholar
Janmaat, J. and Ruijs, A. (2007), ‘Sharing the load? Floods, droughts and managing international rivers’, Environment and Development Economics 12(4): 573–592.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalai, E. (1977), ‘Nonsymmetric Nash solutions and replication of 2-person bargaining’, International Journal of Game Theory 6: 129–133.Google Scholar
Madani, K. (2010), ‘Game theory and water resources’, Journal of Hydrology 381: 225–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MRC (2005), Overview of the Hydrology of the Mekong Basin’, Executive Summary, Phnom Penh: Mekong River Commission.Google Scholar
MRC (2010), Strategic Plan 2011–2015, Mekong River Commission for sustainable development, Lao PDR: Vientiane.Google Scholar
Nash, J. (1950), ‘The bargaining problem’, Econometrica 18: 155–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osborne, M. (2010), ‘The Mekong River under threat’, Asia-Pacific Journal, January 11.Google Scholar
Phillips, D., Daoudy, M., Öjendal, J., Turton, A., and McCaffrey, S. (2006), Trans-boundary Water Cooperation as a Tool for Conflict Prevention and for Broader Benefit-sharing, Stockholm: Ministry for Foreign Affairs.Google Scholar
Ringler, C., von Braun, J., and Rosegrant, M. (2004), ‘Water policy analysis for the Mekong River Basin’, Water International 29: 30–42.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, R. (2007), GAMS – A User's Guide, Washington, DC: GAMS Development Corporation.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, A. (1982), ‘Perfect equilibrium in a bargaining model’, Econometrica 50: 97–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sneddon, C. and Fox, C. (2006), ‘Rethinking trans-boundary waters: a critical hydropolitics of the Mekong basin’, Political Geography 25: 181–202.Google Scholar
Wu, X. and Whittington, D. (2006), ‘Incentive compatibility and conflict resolution in international river basins: a case study of the Nile basin’, Water Resource Research 42(2): 1–15.Google Scholar
Ziv, G., Baran, E., Nam, S., Rodríguez-Iturbe, I., and Levin, S. (2012), ‘Trading-off fish biodiversity, food security, and hydropower in the Mekong River Basin’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109(15): 5609–5614.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Houba Supplementary Material

Appendix

Download Houba Supplementary Material(PDF)
PDF 146.7 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Houba Supplementary Material

Appendix

Download Houba Supplementary Material(PDF)
PDF 149.1 KB