@article{sutherland_edwards_2022, title={The Impact of Property Rights to Fish on Remote Communities in Alaska}, volume={98}, ISSN={["1543-8325"]}, DOI={10.3368/le.98.2.061520-0087R1}, abstractNote={Sara A. Sutherland, Lecturer Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; sara.sutherland{at}duke.edu}, number={2}, journal={LAND ECONOMICS}, author={Sutherland, Sara A. and Edwards, Eric C.}, year={2022}, month={May}, pages={239–253} }
 @article{edwards_guilfoos_2021, title={The Economics of Groundwater Governance Institutions across the GlobeJEL codes}, volume={43}, ISSN={["2040-5804"]}, DOI={10.1002/aepp.13088}, abstractNote={Abstract This article provides an economic framework for understanding the emergence and purpose of groundwater governance across the globe. We examine ten basins located on six continents via an integrated assessment along three dimensions: characteristics of the groundwater resource; externality problems; and governance institutions. Groundwater governance addresses local externalities to balance the benefits of reducing common pool losses with the costs of doing so. While broad, basin‐wide solutions to open access pumping are limited, spatially localized externality problems raise the benefits of management actions, allowing for the implementation of more stringent pumping controls in certain areas.}, number={4}, journal={APPLIED ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES AND POLICY}, author={Edwards, Eric C. and Guilfoos, Todd}, year={2021}, month={Dec}, pages={1571–1594} }
 @article{smith_edwards_2021, title={Water storage and agricultural resilience to drought: historical evidence of the capacity and institutional limits in the United States}, volume={16}, ISSN={["1748-9326"]}, url={https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac358a}, DOI={10.1088/1748-9326/ac358a}, abstractNote={Abstract Food systems are particularly sensitive to changing precipitation patterns. Resilience via irrigation will depend on baseline conditions, water source, and institutional constraints which have not been studied jointly. We draw on over 100 years of agricultural production and weather data across the United States to identify the extent to which access to stored water—distinguished by its source and location—affects drought resiliency. Arid regions with access to stored water avoided the 13% losses in crop value experienced in irrigated areas with more limited storage during droughts. Humid regions are also beginning to adopt irrigation, but with less aggregate impact during drought. The incomplete governance of groundwater withdrawals in many areas allow resiliency in the near-term, but potentially at the expense of future water availability. Conversely, surface water rights allow for the widespread application of irrigation water, but with less resiliency during significant periods of drought.}, number={12}, journal={ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS}, author={Smith, Steven M. and Edwards, Eric C.}, year={2021}, month={Dec} }
 @book{edwards_fiszbein_libecap_2020, title={Colonial Origins, Property Rights, and the Organization of Agricultural Production: the US Midwest and Argentine Pampas Compared}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.3386/w27750}, DOI={10.3386/w27750}, abstractNote={We examine the origins, persistence, and economic consequences of institutional structures of agricultural production. We compare farms in the Argentine Pampas and US Midwest, regions of similar potential input and output mixes. The focus is on 1910-1914, during the international grain trade boom and when census data are available. The Midwest was characterized by small farms and family labor. Land was a commercial asset and traded routinely. The Pampas was characterized by large landholdings and use of external labor. Land was a source of status and held across generations. Status attributes could not be easily monetized for trade, reducing market exchange, limiting entry, and hindering farm restructuring. Differing land property rights followed from English and Spanish colonial and post-independence policies. Geo-climatic factors cannot explain dissimilarities in farm sizes, tenancy, and output mixes, suggesting institutional constraints. Midwest farmers also were more responsive to exogenous signals. There is evidence of moral hazard on Pampas farms. Conjectures on long-term development are provided.

Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.}, institution={National Bureau of Economic Research}, author={Edwards, Eric and Fiszbein, Martin and Libecap, Gary}, year={2020}, month={Aug} }
 @inbook{edwards_leonard_2020, place={Logan, UT}, title={Contracting and the Commons: Linking the Insights of Gary Libecap and Elinor Ostrom}, ISBN={9781734856101}, url={https://www.thecgo.org/research/the-environmental-optimism-of-elinor-ostrom/}, booktitle={The Environmental Optimism of Elinor Ostrom}, publisher={The Center for Growth and Opportunity}, author={Edwards, E.C. and Leonard, B.}, editor={Jenkins, M. E. and Simmons, R. T. and Harmer, C. H.Editors}, year={2020}, pages={149–172} }
 @article{edwards_2020, title={Institutional and Organizational Analysis: Concepts and Applications. By Eric Alston, Lee Alston, Bernardo Mueller, and Tomas Nonnenmacher. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pp. 406. $78.91, hardcover.}, volume={80}, ISSN={0022-0507 1471-6372}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s002205072000039x}, DOI={10.1017/S002205072000039X}, abstractNote={Institutional and Organizational Analysis: Concepts and Applications. By Eric Alston, Lee Alston, Bernardo Mueller, and Tomas Nonnenmacher. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pp. 406. $78.91, hardcover. - Volume 80 Issue 3}, number={3}, journal={The Journal of Economic History}, publisher={Cambridge University Press (CUP)}, author={Edwards, Eric C.}, year={2020}, month={Aug}, pages={926–927} }
 @article{ge_edwards_akhundjanov_2020, title={Irrigation Investment on an American Indian Reservation}, volume={102}, ISSN={0002-9092 1467-8276}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajae.12077}, DOI={10.1002/ajae.12077}, abstractNote={American Indian reservations have low incomes and high rates of poverty relative to adjacent communities, and the income gap appears to be even larger for Indian farmers. We examine the extent to which a lack of access to capital might explain these differences using irrigation systems as a proxy for on‐farm investment around the Uintah‐Ouray Indian Reservation in eastern Utah. Uintah land is held in trust by the US government, and farmers on this land face significant barriers to acquiring capital to invest in irrigation equipment and infrastructure. We use the boundaries from a 1905 land allotment as a natural experiment, employing both sharp and fuzzy regression discontinuity designs to explore whether agricultural land use, irrigation levels, irrigation investment, and crop choice differ across the boundary. The original allocation provided similar land in the immediate neighborhood around its borders, and our results suggest that today tribal trust land is farmed and irrigated at rates similar to adjacent land. However, conditional on being irrigated, tribal trust land is around thirty‐two percentage points less likely to utilize capital‐intensive sprinkler irrigation, and up to ten percentage points less likely to grow high‐value crops. Trust ownership, which is characterized by cumbersome bureaucratic processes, limits on agricultural lease flexibility, and the inability to use land as collateral to acquire loans, is a likely explanation for the observed differences.}, number={4}, journal={American Journal of Agricultural Economics}, publisher={Wiley}, author={Ge, Muyang and Edwards, Eric C. and Akhundjanov, Sherzod B.}, year={2020}, month={Jan}, pages={1083–1104} }
 @article{edwards_go_oladi_2020, title={Predator–prey dynamics in general equilibrium and the role of trade}, volume={61}, ISSN={0928-7655}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.reseneeco.2020.101174}, DOI={10.1016/j.reseneeco.2020.101174}, abstractNote={Abstract We examine the implications of trade in an economy with two interrelated natural resources, focusing on the case of a simple predator–prey relationship. We derive a three-sector general equilibrium model where production functions are linked via the ecological dynamics of the natural system. Under autarky, this economy exhibits a steady-state equilibrium that overexploits the prey stock, reducing the linked predator population and overall welfare in the absence of harvesting controls. When two economies engage in trade, differences in the dynamics of the two resource systems can become the basis for comparative advantage. In this case, the predator–prey relationship leads to a source of comparative advantage in harvesting prey for a country with a lower autarky steady-state proportion of predators to prey. This feature has not been noticed in the literature and leads to a counterintuitive implication: free trade can help conserve predator and prey stocks in the country with the higher autarkic steady-state proportion of predators to prey. To illustrate the relevance of our analytic findings, we present the stylized empirical example of the effect of Chinook salmon imports on killer whale populations.}, journal={Resource and Energy Economics}, publisher={Elsevier BV}, author={Edwards, Eric C. and Go, Dong-Hun and Oladi, Reza}, year={2020}, month={Aug}, pages={101174} }
 @book{edwards_guilfoos_2020, place={Raleigh, NC}, title={The Economics of Groundwater Governance Institutions Across the Globe}, url={https://cenrep.ncsu.edu/cenrep/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Global-Groundwater-Governance.pdf}, number={No. 20-001}, institution={Center for Environmental and Resource Economic Policy}, author={Edwards, E.C. and Guilfoos, T.}, year={2020}, month={May} }
 @article{sanchez_edwards_leonard_2020, title={The economics of indigenous water claim settlements in the American West}, volume={15}, ISSN={1748-9326}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab94ea}, DOI={10.1088/1748-9326/ab94ea}, abstractNote={Abstract The American West confronts the challenge of fulfilling indigenous claims to water within the context of increasingly scarce and variable water supplies. 170 of 226 American Indian reservations have unresolved water claims that potentially exceed the region’s hydrological capacity, generating uncertainty for tribes and off-reservation water users. To help resolve key uncertainties about dispute origins and outcomes, we construct a complete and novel dataset on Indian water settlements and reservation characteristics which we then analyze using a bargaining framework from economics. We find that rapid off-reservation population growth, water scarcity, and large anticipated water entitlements catalyze disputes. When more users are involved in the negotiations, transaction costs delay settlement, increasing water insecurity. We use our findings to predict allocations for 25 ongoing water right negotiations. These estimates help bound the uncertainty facing water managers throughout the American West.}, number={9}, journal={Environmental Research Letters}, publisher={IOP Publishing}, author={Sanchez, Leslie and Edwards, Eric C and Leonard, Bryan}, year={2020}, month={Aug}, pages={094027} }
 @book{edwards_sutherland_2019, title={A Guide to Municipal Water Conservation Pricing in Utah}, url={https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2956&context=extension_curall}, journal={Utah State University Extension Factsheet, Applied Economics/2019-01pr}, author={Edwards, E.C. and Sutherland, S.A.}, year={2019} }
 @book{sutherland_edwards_2019, place={Raleigh, NC}, title={Community Impacts of Fishery Privatization}, url={https://cenrep.ncsu.edu/cenrep/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/WP19-018.pdf}, number={19-018}, institution={Center for Environmental and Resource Economic Policy}, author={Sutherland, S.A. and Edwards, E.C.}, year={2019}, month={Sep} }
 @article{branan_edwards_hutchens_sutherland_2019, place={Raleigh, NC}, title={North Carolinians Benefit from Water Pollution Credit Trading}, url={https://cals.ncsu.edu/agricultural-and-resource-economics/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2019/12/NCState_Economist_waterpollution_fall_2019.pdf}, journal={NC State Economist}, publisher={NC State University College of Ag and Life Science}, author={Branan, R. and Edwards, E.C. and Hutchens, A. and Sutherland, S.A.}, year={2019} }
 @article{edwards_sutherland_von haefen_2019, place={Raleigh, NC}, title={Should I Stay or Should I Go: Coal Ash in North Carolina}, url={https://cals.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Economist-Edwards-Sutherland-von-Haefen.pdf}, journal={NC State Economist}, publisher={NC State University College of Ag and Life Science}, author={Edwards, E.C. and Sutherland, S.A. and von Haefen, R.H.}, year={2019} }
 @article{edwards_null_2019, title={The cost of addressing saline lake level decline and the potential forwater conservation markets}, volume={651}, ISSN={["1879-1026"]}, DOI={10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.09.006}, abstractNote={The world's saline lakes are shrinking and human water diversions are a significant contributor. While there is increased interest in protecting the ecosystem services provided by these lakes, the cost of protecting water levels has not been estimated. To explore this question we consider the case of Great Salt Lake (Utah, USA) where human diversions from three rivers have caused the lake level to decline during the last century. Recent work has suggested the restoration of inflows is necessary to maintain a target elevation consistent with well-functioning ecosystems. We construct cost estimates of increasing water inflows using conservation cost curves for each river basin. We then compare the cost of uniform cutbacks to cap-and-trade systems which allow intra- and inter-basin trading. The cost of water to permanently implement uniform water right cutbacks to increase inflows by 20% above current levels is $37.4 million. Costs and cost-savings are sensitive to alternative allocation, inflow, and cost assumptions, and we estimate significant cost reductions from intra-basin water conservation markets (5–54% cost decrease) and inter-basin water conservation markets (22–57% cost decrease).}, journal={SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT}, author={Edwards, Eric C. and Null, Sarah E.}, year={2019}, month={Feb}, pages={435–442} }
 @article{edwards_cristi_edwards_libecap_2018, title={An illiquid market in the desert: estimating the cost of water trade restrictions in northern Chile}, volume={23}, ISSN={["1469-4395"]}, DOI={10.1017/S1355770X18000220}, abstractNote={Abstract This paper estimates the cost of a policy to restrict water trades to mining firms in northern Chile in order to protect riparian ecosystems and indigenous agriculture. In response to the policy, mining firms have developed high-cost desalination and pumping facilities to secure adequate water supplies. We develop a methodology and estimate the cost of market transactions that fail to occur due to the policy. Lost trade surplus is estimated at US$52 million per year. Without trade restrictions, around 86 per cent of the remaining agricultural water in the region would be transferred to mining.}, number={6}, journal={ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS}, author={Edwards, Eric C. and Cristi, Oscar and Edwards, Gonzalo and Libecap, Gary D.}, year={2018}, month={Dec}, pages={615–634} }
 @article{ayres_edwards_libecap_2018, title={How transaction costs obstruct collective action: The case of California's groundwater}, volume={91}, ISSN={["1096-0449"]}, DOI={10.1016/j.jeem.2018.07.001}, abstractNote={Collective action to remedy the losses of open access to common-pool resources often is late and incomplete, extending rent dissipation. Examples include persistent over-exploitation of oil fields and ocean fisheries, despite general agreement that production constraints are needed. Contracting costs encountered in assigning property rights are an explanation, but analysis of their role is limited by a lack of systematic data. We examine governance institutions in California's 445 groundwater basins using a new dataset to identify factors that influence the adoption of extraction controls. In 309 basins, institutions allow unconstrained pumping, while an additional 105 basins have weak management plans. Twenty of these basins are severely overdrafted. Meanwhile, users in 31 basins have defined groundwater property rights, the most complete solution. We document the critical role of the transaction costs associated with contracting in explaining this variation in responses. This research adds to the literatures on open access, transaction costs, bargaining, and property rights.}, journal={JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT}, author={Ayres, Andrew B. and Edwards, Eric C. and Libecap, Gary D.}, year={2018}, month={Sep}, pages={46–65} }
 @article{edwards_smith_2018, title={The Role of Irrigation in the Development of Agriculture in the United States}, volume={78}, ISSN={["1471-6372"]}, DOI={10.1017/S0022050718000608}, abstractNote={We examine the role of irrigation in explaining U.S. agricultural gains post-1940. Specifically, we analyze how productivity and farm values changed in the western United States as a result of technological and policy changes that expanded access to ground and surface water. To statistically identify the effects, we compare counties based on their potential access to irrigation water defined by physical characteristics. We find areas with access to large streams and/or groundwater increase crop production relative to areas with only small streams by $19 billion annually, equivalent to 90 percent of the total annual increase in the western United States after 1940.}, number={4}, journal={JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY}, author={Edwards, Eric C. and Smith, Steven M.}, year={2018}, month={Dec}, pages={1103–1141} }
 @article{edwards_bosworth_adams_baji_burrows_gerdes_jones_2017, title={Economic Insight from Utah’s Water Efficiency Supply Curve}, volume={9}, ISSN={2073-4441}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w9030214}, DOI={10.3390/w9030214}, abstractNote={Across the western US, growing populations and urbanization along with environmental demands and a changing climate have strained water allocation mechanisms originally designed to provide water to agriculture. This paper provides a methodology, using Utah as an example, for examining the options for new water supply via conservation, interpretable by policymakers, water agencies, and water users. Findings indicate that the largest potential water savings, at the lowest cost, are in agriculture and outdoor residential water use, where more efficient applications can maintain the acreage of crops and lawns at current levels while dramatically reducing use.}, number={3}, journal={Water}, publisher={MDPI AG}, author={Edwards, Eric and Bosworth, Ryan and Adams, Patrick and Baji, Viviane and Burrows, Amberlee and Gerdes, Coleman and Jones, Michelle}, year={2017}, month={Mar}, pages={214} }
 @inbook{edwards_sutherland_2017, place={Thousand Oaks, CA}, title={Lobbying}, booktitle={SAGE Encyclopedia of Political Behavior}, publisher={SAGE Publications, Inc.}, author={Edwards, E.C. and Sutherland, S.A.}, editor={Moghaddam, Fathali M.Editor}, year={2017}, pages={448–451} }
 @article{edwards_2016, title={Book Review: “Chasing Water — A Guide for Moving from Scarcity to Sustainability”}, volume={02}, ISSN={2382-624X 2382-6258}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/s2382624x16800023}, DOI={10.1142/s2382624x16800023}, number={02}, journal={Water Economics and Policy}, publisher={World Scientific Pub Co Pte Lt}, author={Edwards, Eric C.}, year={2016}, month={Jun}, pages={1680002} }
 @book{edwards_o’grady_jenkins_2016, place={Raleigh, NC}, title={Land Ownership and Delay in Oil and Gas Production: A Natural Experiment}, url={https://extranet.sioe.org/uploads/sioe2017/edwards_o'grady_jenkins.pdf}, number={19-017}, institution={Center for Environmental and Resource Economic Policy}, author={Edwards, E.C. and O’Grady, T. and Jenkins, D.}, year={2016}, month={Dec} }
 @article{edwards_2016, title={What Lies Beneath? Aquifer Heterogeneity and the Economics of Groundwater Management}, volume={3}, ISSN={2333-5955 2333-5963}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/685389}, DOI={10.1086/685389}, abstractNote={This paper examines the distribution of economic benefits from groundwater management as a consequence of underlying aquifer characteristics. The portions of an aquifer where water moves rapidly, those with high hydraulic conductivity, as well as those that receive less yearly recharge, face a more costly common-pool problem and therefore receive higher benefits from management. The introduction of management districts in Kansas is used to test the effect of underlying aquifer characteristics on changes in agricultural land value, farm size, and crop choice. A landowner in a county with hydraulic conductivity one standard deviation higher sees a relative land value increase of 5%–8% when management is implemented. Counties with lower recharge also see relative increases in land value. Changes in farm size and percentage of cropland in corn are also consistent with the proposition that the effect of management is unequal and depends on properties of the physical system.}, number={2}, journal={Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists}, publisher={University of Chicago Press}, author={Edwards, Eric C.}, year={2016}, month={Jun}, pages={453–491} }
 @misc{edwards_libecap_2015, title={Water institutions and the law of one price}, ISBN={9780857937568}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/9780857937568.00025}, DOI={10.4337/9780857937568.00025}, journal={Handbook on the Economics of Natural Resources}, publisher={Edward Elgar Publishing}, author={Edwards, Eric C. and Libecap, Gary D.}, year={2015}, month={Mar}, pages={442–473} }
 @article{grafton_libecap_edwards_o'brien_landry_2011, title={Comparative assessment of water markets: insights from the Murray–Darling Basin of Australia and the Western USA}, volume={14}, ISSN={1366-7017 1996-9759}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wp.2011.016}, DOI={10.2166/wp.2011.016}, abstractNote={Water markets in Australia's Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) and the western USA are compared in terms of their ability to allocate scarce water resources. The study finds that the gains from trade in the MDB are worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year (note that all monetary units of dollars in this article are treated as US$ because Australian$ are converted at par). Total market turnover in water rights exceeds US$2 billion per year while the volume of trade exceeds over 20% of surface water extractions. In Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada and Texas, trades of committed water annually range between 5 and 15% of total state freshwater diversions with over US$4.3 billion (2008 US$; monetary units in dollars are expressed in their value in US$ in 2008) spent or committed by urban buyers between 1987 and 2008. The two-market comparison suggests that policy attention should be directed towards ways of promoting water trade while simultaneously mitigating the legitimate third party concerns about how and where water is used, especially in conflicts between consumptive and in situ uses of water. The study finds that institutional innovation is feasible in both countries and that further understanding about the size, duration and distribution of third party effects from water trade and how these effects might be regulated, can improve water markets' ability to manage water scarcity better.}, number={2}, journal={Water Policy}, publisher={IWA Publishing}, author={Grafton, R. Quentin and Libecap, Gary D. and Edwards, Eric C. and O'Brien, R. J. (Bob) and Landry, Clay}, year={2011}, month={Aug}, pages={175–193} }