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From reliable water supplies to large-scale electricity generation, the benefits brought by dams can be huge. But so can the problems. Tim Harford explains how these massive structures have changed the world for many, but led to catastrophe for others.

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10 minutes

Last on

Mon 10 Feb 2020 04:50GMT

Image credit

The Aswan High Dam in Egypt (Credit: Khaled Elfiqi/EPA)

Sources

Norman Smith A history of dams London: Peter Davies 1971

Charles Perrow Normal Accidents Princeton University Press: Chichester 1999; Matthys Levy and Mario Salvadori Why Buildings Fall Down WW Norton: New York 2002

. Article 56

Financial Times

鈥淭he Ups and Downs of Dams鈥 The Economist

120,000, according to both anthropologist and Norman Smith A history of dams London: Peter Davies 1971. puts the figure much lower, at 50,000:聽聽

Elinor Ostrom, 鈥業ncentives, Rules of the Game, and Development鈥 (Annual Bank Conference of Development Economics, World Bank, May 1995)

Esther Duflo & Rohini Pande, 2007. "Dams," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 122(2), pages 601-646, 05

Sheila M. Olmstead & Hilary Sigman, 2015. "Damming the Commons: An Empirical Analysis of International Cooperation and Conflict in Dam Location," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(4), pages 497 - 526

Heba Saleh and Tom Wilson ""

Asit K. Biswas 鈥(No. 6, November/December 2002, p. 25-27)聽 and 鈥溾

Esther Duflo & Rohini Pande, 2007. "Dams,"

Broadcasts

  • Sat 8 Feb 2020 05:50GMT
  • Sat 8 Feb 2020 14:50GMT
  • Sun 9 Feb 2020 14:50GMT
  • Sun 9 Feb 2020 15:50GMT
  • Sun 9 Feb 2020 22:50GMT
  • Mon 10 Feb 2020 04:50GMT

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