摘要：Adoption of a hybrid approach to water rights (the California doc trine) in some western states ofthe United States (U.S.) and Austra lia creates some doubt as to what factors drive water rights evolution. To date, commentators have argued climate is the only variable that affects this progression. However, climate alone cannot explain why the hybrid approach, persisted in nine of seventeen arid U.S. states and two Australian colonies. This paper shows that in addition to climate, the type of asset investment in water intensive sectors impacts water evolution via the mobility constraint. This study presents a predictive framework combining climate and asset type to determine the net effects on water scarcity and determine when and where riparian and/or appropriative water rights will evolve. In this article empirical evidence from several countries is used to verify the predictive capabilities of the framework. The find ings indicated that the combination of variables included in the framework could better explain water rights evolution than climate alone.
