Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Sabyasachi  Das
Author-Name-First: Sabyasachi 
Author-Name-Last: Das
Author-Email: sabyasachi.das@ashoka.edu.in
Author-Workplace-Name: Ashoka University
Author-Name: Souvik  Dutta
Author-Name-First: Souvik 
Author-Name-Last: Dutta
Author-Email: souvik@iiitd.ac.in
Author-Workplace-Name: Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi
Title: Decentralization and Spatial (Mis-)Allocation of Irrigation Water
Abstract: This paper examines the consequence of decentralization in the management of canal irrigation for spatial allocation of water and agricultural performance. Under centralized management, farmers closer to the canal tend to over-extract water, resulting in spatial mis-allocation. We test whether decentralization can improve spatial allocation of water by exploiting the staggered constitution of locally elected canal management bodies (“Pani Panchayats”) in the state of Orissa, India, that decentralized its canal management. Using survey data and a heterogeneous treatment effect estimation strategy using farmer level fixed effects, we show that farming plots farther away from the canal received less water under centralized system, but longer exposure to decentralization significantly reduces spatial mis-allocation. Consequently, agricultural revenue and wealth (landholding) improve more for those farmers. We find suggestive evidence that distant farmers’ ability to complain to local representatives is an important mechanism explaining our results.
length: 40
Creation-Date: 20230130
Revision-Date: 
Publication-Status: 
File-URL: https://dp.ashoka.edu.in/ash/wpaper/paper91_0.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf 
Number: 91
Keywords: Pani Panchayats
Keywords: local governance
Keywords: natural resource management
Handle: RePEc:ash:wpaper:91