Economics Commons^™

Roads And Resources: Groundwater Depletion In Lankao Country In The North China Plains, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Xiangzheng Deng, Yazhen Gong, Martino Pelli, Zhang Qian

Ujjayant Chakravorty

China produces most of its food grains in the North China Plains. However, there is evidence that groundwater aquifers in this region are being overexploited. We use a unique GIS-referenced dataset of the depth of the water table for all the 12,000 odd tube wells in Lankao county. We find that the construction of new highways has led to a depletion of the water table in wells close to the highways. This relationship is robust to a variety of controls, including distance to river and primary canals, village and township fixed effects, the date of drilling of the well and …

The Economics Of Horizontal Government Cooperation (Working Paper), Matthew R. Dalsanto Ph.D.

Matthew R. DalSanto, Ph.D.

This paper analyzes the ability of intrastate and interstate cooperative agreements to either minimize or capitalize on interjurisdictional externalities. These agreements are commonly referred to as compacts or joint powers agreements (intrastate compacts). The compact mechanism allows regional governments to enter into contractual agreements with one another to coordinate policy choices and to engage in cooperative endeavors. Given the inter-jurisdictional nature of the issues that affect horizontally situated governments, this mechanism is a powerful tool to achieve welfare-enhancing outcomes for citizens.

A review of the legal case law surrounding compacts is conducted to analyze the legal properties from an economic …