Alfonso Expósito

Why Is Water Pricing Ineffective for Deficit Irrigation Schemes? A Case Study in Southern Spain

This paper explores the impact on water demand of the adoption of deficit and precision irrigation as a farmer’s attempt to respond to water scarcity by maximising water productivity. The case study is characterised by the intensive use of deficit irrigation techniques in olive groves, which account for 50% of all irrigated land in southern Spain. These technologies have an important influence on the structure of the water demand. This study reveals that following the adoption of such technologies, water demand does not respond to moderate changes in water price, unless price increases become so great that they reach a threshold price representing a disproportionate and unaffordable social impact. This fact has significant consequences for water policy as water pricing becomes an ineffective instrument for managing water demand in a context characterised by resource scarcity and farmers’ adoption of deficit irrigation techniques.

Economic challenges for the EU Water Framework Directive reform and implementation

ABSTRACT The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) is a unique and historic piece of environmental legislation, combining ecological and economic dimensions. The aim of the WFD is to ensure sustainable socio-economic management of the resource, protecting the quantity and quality of water. The complexity of this political, ecological and economic framework has led to misinterpretation and implementation problems among Member States, and thus to unsatisfactory outcomes. This paper analyses the economic science challenges for the upcoming WFD reform and its subsequent implementation, and gives some recommendations about how to handle these challenges. Consensus is required on the definitions of the existing economic concepts and tools currently included in European Union (EU) water policy (through the original WFD) and the methods for operationalizing them. Additionally, this will help fill key gaps, such as the lack of suitably skilled practitioners and the need for homogeneous economic knowledge among Member States. Furthermore, it seems necessary to integrate additional emerging concepts into the water policy debate and its praxis in the EU context.

Conciliation of competing uses and stakeholder rights to groundwater: an evaluation of Fuencaliente Aquifer (Spain)

ABSTRACT This article evaluates economic use values of groundwater and examines the trade-offs between agricultural and recreational uses of the Fuencaliente Aquifer in southern Spain. This case study is an example of the relevance of the non-market values of groundwater resources in achieving more sustainable management of groundwater resources, an issue on which there is still scarce evidence in the literature. The revealed preference of stakeholders associated with the current resource allocation (as defined by the agreed aquifer management plan) can be explained by the consideration of option values and economic non-use values (cultural and historical).

The Importance of the Groundwater Governance in the Global Change Context: A Proposal for a Mediterranean Aquifer (Llanos de la Puebla, Spain)

Groundwater governance has acquired relevant economic, social and political importance in the last decades, especially for developing countries where groundwater abstractions have become critical to sustain its growth. Nowadays there are few examples of effective groundwater governance. Despite the fact that most water policies target sustainability in the use of groundwater, a majority of aquifers are still overdraft as it is the case in the Mediterranean region and elsewhere. Good governance of groundwater resources should be capable to offer effective responses to achieve stated goals as well as to solve conflicts and avoid the “tragedy of the commons”. This paper discusses effective governance of groundwater including the description of the recent evolution in the governance of two specific neighboring aquifers located in the North of Granada province (Andalusia, southeastern Spain). Both aquifers are representative of a semi-arid geographical context with Mediterranean climatic conditions and an intense irrigated agricultural development occurred in last decades based on groundwater abstractions. The aquifers are contiguous and share similar socioeconomic and natural characteristics, although both aquifers have developed different governance models and thus have achieved different sustainability results, what makes this case study of special interest.

Innovation and business performance for Spanish SMEs: new evidence from a multi-dimensional approach

This article examines the impact of product, process and organisational innovations on two alternative dimensions of business performance: finance and operations. Two indicators capture financial performance: sales increase and production cost reduction. Operational firm performance is captured by two alternative indicators: productive capacity augmentation and quality improvement of product/service provided by the firm. Using a wide-ranging sample of Spanish small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), our findings highlight the significant impact of innovation upon both these dimensions of business performance, although they differ regarding the type of innovation and the performance indicator considered. Furthermore, our results indicate that the relationship between innovation choices in SMEs and business performance should be analysed from a multi-dimensional approach. These findings reveal significant implications for innovation policies and strategies for SMEs.