| 要約: | Water markets are a form of decentralized resource allocation, yet their success often depends on strong coordination institutions to establish appropriate regulatory frameworks, address disputes and minimize third party impacts as water is redistributed. Water markets and associated institutional reforms are prevalent in countries with federal political systems. The territorial division of authority in federal countries enhances representation of diverse interests and creates incentives for local innovation but it also creates potential coordination challenges in river basins shared by multiple jurisdictions. This paper compares water markets and associated institutional reforms in Australia, Spain and the Western USA - three federations with longstanding experience with water markets but different approaches to distributing authority and intergovernmental coordination in water allocation. We conduct an institutional mapping of national and sub-national roles in market-based water allocation reforms across the three countries and employ process tracing techniques to examine coordination challenges and institutional responses associated with water markets. The comparative institutional analysis illustrates how the policy goals addressed by water markets vary across – and within – the three countries in part due to the level of centralisation and the different balance of national versus sub-national interests driving water market development. Despite these differences, all three cases show that water markets require well-developed inter-governmental coordination institutions, which come in multiple forms matched to the local context, history and specific regional governance challenges.
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