Water Pricing in Agriculture following the Water Framework Directive: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Abstract

In October 2000, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) established a common framework for water management in Europe, thereby substantially reforming European water legislation. The Directive encourages the use of  economic instruments, including water pricing, to ensure water resource management and conservation. The aim of this systematic review was to establish the state of academic research on water pricing in connection with the WFD within the agriculture sector. It emerges that the issue of water pricing is very broad, site-specific and mostly, it faces multidisciplinary issues. Researchers should cross their conventional boundaries of investigation, trying to cut edges. While the Directive advocate for a larger implementation of economic instruments such as pricing, it seems that the large contribution from the economists is yet to come.