We review recent water reforms and the consequences of water recovery intended to increase stream flows in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB), Australia. The MDB provides a natural experiment of water recovery for the environment that includes (a) the voluntary buy-back of water rights from willing sellers and (b) the subsidization of irrigation infrastructure. We find that (a) the actual increase in the volumes of water in terms of stream flows is much less than claimed by the Australian government; (b) subsidies to increase irrigation efficiency have reduced stream and groundwater return flows; (c) buy-backs are much more cost effective than subsidies; (d) many of the gains from water recovery have accrued as private benefits to irrigators; and (e) more than a decade after water recovery began, there is no observable basin-wide relationship between volumes of water recovered and flows at the mouth of the River Murray. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Resource Economics Volume ...

中文翻译：

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澳大利亚墨累-达令盆地的水回收经济学

我们回顾了最近的水改革以及旨在增加澳大利亚墨累-达令盆地 (MDB) 河流流量的水回收的后果。MDB 为环境提供了水回收的自然实验，其中包括 (a) 自愿卖家自愿回购水权和 (b) 对灌溉基础设施的补贴。我们发现 (a) 就溪流而言，水量的实际增加远低于澳大利亚政府声称的；(b) 提高​​灌溉效率的补贴减少了河流和地下水回流；(c) 回购比补贴更具成本效益；(d) 水回收的许多收益已作为灌溉者的私人利益累积；(e) 在水回收开始十多年后，在回收的水量和墨累河河口的流量之间没有可观察到的流域范围内的关系。预计资源经济学卷年度评论的最终在线发布日期......