With the increasing treatment of water as an economic good, it is appropriate to ask whether this has led to better decisions being made. Conversely, it can be asked what the application of economic analysis to decisions about water has taught us about economics. In discussing economics, however, it is necessary to make a distinction between economics as an approach, the application of reason to choice, and specific implementations of that approach. Of these implementations, the dominant form is neo-classical economics. It will be argued that this parochial (better termed #x2019;Anglo-Saxon#x2019;) economics suffers from a number of limitations. Nevertheless, even with these limitations, it is argued that economics can contribute to improving decisions involving water.
展开▼
