The Economic Impact of Alternative Water Pricing Policies in Alentejo Region

Considering the important role of irrigation in the socio-economic development of the Alentejo region in Portugal, this paper aims to assess the economic impact of water pricing in the context of the public irrigation perimeter of Odivelas in that region. The methodological framework uses the estimation of programming models based on optimality conditions as an alternative to the Positive Mathematical Programming approach. The model parameters were estimated using the entropy approach and information priors. The model was formulated on the aggregated scale of the irrigated perimeter, considering the main regional irrigated crops as well as land, labour, capital and water resources.