Water on Wall Street: Human Rights, Pricing, and Trading

In 2010, the United Nations declared access to clean drinking water a human right. Yet billions still face scarcity while water is wasted, polluted, and undervalued. Water on Wall Street confronts this paradox with clarity and urgency.

Arguing that water must be treated as both a right and a responsibility – two sides of the same coin that will shape our future – researchers Marcel Boyer and Maria Kouyoumijian explore how population growth, economic expansion, and climate pressures heighten global demand. They demonstrate that socially responsible management requires new tools: efficient pricing, regulated markets, and transparent institutions that promote conservation while ensuring equity.

Spanning history, policy, economics, law, and technology, this book speaks to readers who want to understand water in all its dimensions. Accessible yet rigorous, it offers a bold, solution-driven framework showing how protecting humanity’s most vital resource demands both ethical commitment and economic ingenuity.

Marcel Boyer is a professor emeritus of economics at the Université de Montréal, associate member of the Toulouse School of Economics, and a member of the Scientific Committee of the AFG Sustainable Finance and Responsible Investment Chairs.

Maria Kouyoumijian, MSc in Finance and Water Engineering, is a London-based researcher at CIRANO and McGill University whose interdisciplinary background informs her authorship and publishing of STEM-focused children’s books.