The Economic Impact of Irrigation Water Rights Adjudication: Evidence from Oregon's Klamath Basin, with William K. Jaeger and Daniel P. Bigelow.

 Abstract                           

Economic theory predicts that more secure irrigation water rights will benefit farmers who hold those rights. We examine evidence of this by looking at the effects of the adjudication decree for water rights on irrigated farmland values in Klamath County, Oregon. Our empirical approach involves using hedonic estimates of farmland values and a difference-in-differences-in-reverse research design to compare farmland values before and after the adjudication decree. The approach uses pooled cross-sectional data from 2005 to 2023 in Klamath County, and for a control group of four other Oregon counties. Results indicate a 13% to 43% increase in farmland values following the adjudication decree. The inference being that farmers benefit from reduced uncertainty about water availability when making production decisions. Benefits may also accrue from the opportunity for water market transactions allowed under Oregon law for adjudicated water rights. The evidence is consistent with economic theory about the value of secure property rights.

Presentations: This paper was presented at the 2024 Western Agricultural Economics Association (WAEA) Annual Conference, the 2025 Association for Mentoring and Inclusion in Economics (AMIE) Workshop in Applied Microeconomics, and the 2025 Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE) Summer Conference.

Download 2025 AERE Selected Paper Slides Here.

 Annan, K., and Reimer, J. J. (2025). The U.S. Elasticity of Import Demand for Potash. Journal of  Agricultural and Applied Economics, 1–18. Link

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Ofori, P. E., Ofori, I. K., and Annan, K. (2024). The Role of Energy Equity and Income Inequality in Environmental Sustainability. Journal of Cleaner Production, 470, 143183. Link

Reimer, J. J., and Annan, K. (2023). Determinants of Softwood Lumber Prices in the US Northwest. Forest Science, 69(5): 486-497. Link

Annan, K., Van der Sluis, E., Fausti, S. W., and Kolady, D. E. (2022). The role of biotechnology and biofuels in US Corn Belt cropping system changes. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 37(4), 313-321. Link

The Economic Impacts of Wildfires on Agricultural Land Markets, with Daniel P. Bigelow.

Presentations: This paper was presented at the 2025 AAEA and WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, and the 2025 Pacific Northwest Regional Economic Conference. 

Download 2025 AAEA Selected Paper Here.

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Adoption Dynamics of Ecological Agriculture Practices: Understanding the Complementarity and Intensity in the U.S. Midwest, with Stephen Cheye and Tong Wang. Draft available upon request.