Measuring and Apportioning Rents from Hydroelectric Power Developments

Rothman, Mitchell

Washington, DC:World Bank

关键词: AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS;    AGRICULTURE;    AUCTIONS;    COAL;    COMPETITIVE MARKETS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/0-8213-4798-5
RP-ID  :  WDP419

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper deals with economic rentsarising from the development of hydroelectric generation oninternational watercourses. The paper briefly defines theconcept of economic rent and its application tohydroelectric developments. It explores two areas ofprecedents that shows how the concept could be applied indevelopments on international watercourses. First, it looksat international law on the ownership and rights of use ofsuch watercourses. Then it looks at past instances ofinternational watercourse development that have used theidea of rent, or rent-like concepts, to determine how toshare the benefits from the development. The paper notesthat international convention and practice on this topicexpect that riparian countries will negotiate the sharing ofbenefits from international developments. What the paperthen seeks is a guide to such negotiations. The paper alsodevotes some attention to methods for quantifying the rentsgenerated by projects in various situations: where acompetitive market exists for the project's output;where no market exists; or where the hydroelectricdevelopment is part of a multipurpose project. In general,the total benefit from a cooperative development of aninternational watercourse is greater than the benefits fromseparate independent developments. Each participant shouldget from the cooperative development at least as much rentas it could have obtained from an independent development.