R. J. O'Brien

TL;DR: Water markets in Australia9s Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) and the western USA are compared in terms of their ability to allocate scarce water resources as mentioned in this paper, finding that the gains from trade in the MDB are worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year (note that all monetary units of dollars in this article are treated as US$ because Australian$ are converted at par).

TL;DR: Grafton et al. as mentioned in this paper presented an integrated assessment of water markets in Australia, Chile, China, South Africa, and the USAR, with a focus on water markets.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine water markets in both Australia's MDB and the western US and their prospects for addressing water scarcity and show that rights are more clearly defined and trading more common in Australia than appears to be the case in the western U.S. Longer periods of scarcity and hence, higher water values may explain this difference.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine water markets in both Australia's Murray Darling Basin and the western US and their prospects for addressing water scarcity, showing that the two regions share a number of important similarities including: climate variability that requires investment in reservoirs to make water available in low-rainfall periods; the need for internal and cross-border (state) water management; an historical major allocation of water to irrigators; increasing competition among different uses (agricultural, environmental and recreational in situ uses, urban demand); and the potential for water trading to more smoothly and quickly allocate

TL;DR: In this article, Dinar et al. show that if current trends continue, by 2025 up to a third of humanity will be living in countries in regions where water withdrawals exceed 60 % of the available water resources.