Allocating resources in an uncertain world: Water management and endangered species Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • AbstractInstream flows may be essential in protecting aquatic species that are threatened or endangered. An economic model of the optimal allocation of water under pure uncertainty is developed, with particular attention paid to the situation when a species characterized by critical depensation is affected by instream flows. We adopt the notion of pure uncertainty that Frank Knight and Daniel Ellsberg intended, which applies when decision makers cannot reduce their uncertainty to a unique probability distribution. Following recent work by Hansen, Sargent, and others, we employ robust control as a way to deal with this problem.

published proceedings

  • AMERICAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

author list (cited authors)

  • Woodward, R. T., & Shaw, W. D.

citation count

  • 14

complete list of authors

  • Woodward, Richard T||Shaw, W Douglass

publication date

  • August 2008

publisher