摘要：Trade in water entitlements has been a feature of irrigated agriculture in parts of Australia for several decades. The combination of capped river diversions, environmental flow requirements and increasing water demand from new developments has increased the interest in markets to reallocate scarce water resources. That there can be substantial economic benefits from trade in water entitlements is widely recognised. Unrestricted trade in water entitlements has been estimated to potentially increase the total gross margin to irrigators by around 5 per cent a year 1 in the southern Murray Darling Basin (Hall, Poulter and Curtotti 1994). However, there are numerous impediments to trade that inhibit the realisation of these potential benefits. Their identification and removal is critical if environmental flows are to be obtained via water markets at least cost.
