ABSTRACT

This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part provides examples of how practical analytical problems have stimulated conceptual, methodological and interpretative advance. It examines the important distinction between the economic justification of a public water development project and its financial feasibility. The part demonstrates the different applications of cost-benefit analysis appropriate for each. It focuses on cost allocation provides an opening to explore a potpourri of policy topics—an opportunity of which Wantrup takes full advantage. The part utilizes the nominal subject as a window for viewing underlying issues. It explores an array of philosophical issues relating to the properties of theory and the meaning of models, projections, predictions and prophecies. Water development has been a theater of activity in which many basic topics of natural resource economics have been identified and illuminated. Public investment in water projects stimulated the evolution of benefit-cost analysis.