The Economic Implications of Alternative Management Structures at the Lake Shelbyville Water Resource Project

The preferences of all major interest groups should be incorporated when developing management policy for water resource projects. Successful incorporation of these preferences requires an understanding of the economic implications of alternative management structures which produce institutional and policy effects. A conceptual framework is presented for estimating, by interest groups, the economic implications of water resource characteristic changes. Preferences of interest groups are revealed by examining their value responses as water resource characteristic levels are altered. Political preference function theory, previously used in trade and commodity policy, is employed to evaluate the optimality of economic welfare outcomes under the current characteristics level choice set and additional sets generated when management authority is transferred to alternative management structures. Results from a pilot study conducted at Lake Shelbyville, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir in south-central Illinois, are presented to illustrate the empirical application possibilities of the framework. Using an illustrative database constructed from a survey of seven interest groups, alternative management structures are examined for various levels of four water resource characteristics. The framework is found to be a useful tool for identifying the significant characteristics of single groups and coalitions of interest groups, thus helping policy makers recognize potential supporters and opponents of potential policy changes. The framework also shows a capacity for including potential interest groups which do not presently exist, making predictions of coalition-building possibilities, and estimating the economic welfare effects on interest groups from exogenous characteristic restrictions.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Agricultural Economics

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Stark, Charles Robert, Jr

Contributors dc:contributor

• Seitz, Wesley D.,

• Economics, Agricultural
• Environmental Sciences
• Recreation

Identifier

(UMI)AAI9329167

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/72178