'This is an excellent piece of work, applying the economic theory of property rights and transaction costs to the complex policy problems associated with water use in irrigation. Challen examines the determination of transaction costs and the way they interact with a realistic specification of property rights. He thereby avoids the two main defects found in much work in this area: first, the use of a simplistic division of property rights schemes, for example one based on polar categories of private property and common property, defined to mean open access, and second, a tendency to use the category of transaction costs as an unexamined "black box".' - John Quiggin, James Cook University, Australia 'A most encouraging trend in economics concerns the careful and non-teleological study of institutions. From an era in which institutions were completely ignored, through an era in which it was thought that institutions were mere constraints on otherwise beneficent behavior in markets, through an era in which it was thought that the purpose of institutions was to promote economic efficiency, we now seem to be firmly in an era in which it is understood that institutions are the very bedrock of economic and social interaction. The analysis of institutions will fall into incoherence if we insist on seeing them as teleological rather than as instrumental. Once there, we must still understand the purposes that different individuals and collectivities ascribe to particular institutional set ups. In this careful book Ray Challen offers clear conceptual guidance to the study of economic institutions. He also shows us how one can undertake the analysis of institutional choice. The problem setting is water resources in eastern Australia. The lessons are profoundly international, and the approach is refreshingly promising.' - Daniel W. Bromley, University of Wisconsin-Madison, US Conventional economic analysis of property rights in natural resources is too narrow and restrictive to allow for effective comparisons between alternative institutional structures. In this book, a conceptual framework is developed for the analysis of these structures with illustrative application to the allocation of water resources.

Environmental economics has employed the seminal contribution of Ronald H. Coase (1960) intensively but has remained relatively unaffected by the contributions of perhaps his most influential follower, Oliver E. Williamson. As an initial step in addressing this oversight, we apply the analytical framework of discrete structural alternatives to the choice of policy instruments. Environmental-related transactions, which differ in their attributes, are aligned with categories of policy instruments, which differ in their cost and competence, so as to effect a discriminating - mainly transaction costs-economizing - result. Insightful strategic and policy implications are stressed.

This research proposes a methodology to account for policy transaction costs and to assess how they condition the implementation of policy tasks. In light of an empirical analysis of the European Water Framework Directive implementation in 4 institutional contexts, this work (1) elaborates a typology of Policy Transaction Costs (PTC) determinants and (2) depicts stakeholders' strategies to cope with PTC ('arrangements'). We distinguish three main categories of arrangements: strategies to minimize either research and information collection costs, negotiation costs, or coordination costs. This research testifies that certain policy implementation decisions can be explained by the search for PTC minimization according to contextual determinants. Policy analysis shall thus consider PTC linked to policy implementation so as to anticipate (i) the constraints policy actors will face when implementing a given policy and (ii) how these actors are likely to respond to such constraints.

This book contains the papers that were presented in 1994 at the conference "Transaction Cost Economics and Beyond" organized by GRASP at the Tinbergen Institute in Rotterdam. It is generally recognized that transaction cost economics (TCE) is at the heart of the new theory of the firm. It is a well established research program with a well developed theoretical framework and good results in empirical testing. However, critics consider the approach too limited to understand the essential characteristics of such complex organizations like firms. Critics plea convincingly for the need to go beyond the original TCE framework and to develop a more pluralistic approach towards issues of economic organization. The new theory of the firm can only be further developed when scholars are willing to debate the issues in an open-minded, academic way. I thank the participants of the conference very much for putting so much effort in writing their papers and for their contribution to an open and stimulating discussion. It is my wish that this book contributes to the further deve lopment of the theory of the firm and that it helps us to a better understan ding of the complexities of economic organization. I would like to thank the following organizations for their support: the Tinbergen Institute, the "Vereniging Trust Fonds" of the Erasmus University, the Faculty of Economics of the Erasmus University, and GRASP (Group for Research and Advice in Strategic management and Industrial Policy).

This book was published in 2003.The "International Library of Environmental Economics and Policy" explores the influence of economics on the development of environmental and natural resource policy. In a series of 25 volumes, the most significant journal essays in key areas of contemporary environmental and resource policy are collected. Scholars who are recognized for their expertise and contribution to the literature in the various research areas serve as volume editors and write essays that provides the context for the collection. Volumes in the series reflect three broad strands of economic research including: natural and environmental resources; policy instruments and institutions; and methodology. The editors, in their introduction to each volume, provide a state-of-the-art overview of the topic and explain the influence and relevance of the collected papers on the development of policy. This reference series provides access to the economic literature that has shaped contemporary perspectives on land use analysis and policy.

The current emphasis on sustainable development is a consequence of the general awareness of the need to solve numerous environmental problems resulting from our modern society. This book addresses the topic of Investment Assessment and Environmental Economics in an integrated way; in accordance with the principles of sustainability; considering social and environmental impacts of new investments. Bringing together papers from the First International Conference on Environmental Economics and Investment Assessment, papers encompass topic areas such as: Economy and the Environment; Investment Planning and Assessment; Environmental Economics and Entrepreneurship; Environmental Investment Planning; Sustainable Environmental Management; Environmental Impact Assessments and Investments; Environmental Performance Indicators; Environmental Management Systems; Legislation and Law Enforcement; Cost Benefits Analysis; Natural Resources Management; Social Issues and Environmental Policies; Risk Management in Environmental Investment; Location Optimization.