Public Opinion on ColoradoWater Rights Transfers: Are Policy Preferences Consistent with Concerns over Impacts?

Abstract

We evaluate Coloradans’ preferences for policies decreasing the need for agricultural water transfers using two choice experiments with different frames—one highlighting policy choices and one emphasizing ex post impacts on prices, urban landscaping, and base charges. We find that a majority of users state a willingness to face private costs to reduce agricultural water transfers. Latent-class analysis is used to describe heterogeneity in opinion groups, showing that a minority of urban, lower-income participants would prefer to fallow agricultural land than to pay for alternative policies. This opinion group increases in size in the impact-framed survey.