IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/rmeecf/v1y2003i1n5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Water Scarcity and Food Imports: An Emperical Investigation of the 'Virtual Water' Hypothesis in the MENA Region

Author

Listed:
  • Hakimian Hassan

    (Cass Business School)

Abstract

Despite the long tradition established by the Heckscher-Ohlin (H-O) theorem and copious literature on the so-called Leontief Paradox, economists have not methodically linked the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region's well-known water-scarcity problem to its mounting food imports. This paper first reinterprets the factor endowments and comparative advantage theory in the MENA context, suggesting that the 'virtual water' (VW) hypothesis, focusing on water embedded in commodities, is in line with the H-O model's tenet that 'trade in commodities is an indirect way of trade in factors of production'. Second, findings using comparative cross-section regression analysis for 100 countries appear to vindicate the VW hypothesis that the import structures for water-deficit areas are dominated by large food/agricultural imports. The study ends with a discussion of the policy and political economy implications of the hypothesis in the light of our empirical findings.

Suggested Citation

  • Hakimian Hassan, 2003. "Water Scarcity and Food Imports: An Emperical Investigation of the 'Virtual Water' Hypothesis in the MENA Region," Review of Middle East Economics and Finance, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 70-84, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:rmeecf:v:1:y:2003:i:1:n:5
    DOI: 10.2202/1475-3693.1004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2202/1475-3693.1004
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2202/1475-3693.1004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pandya-Lorch, Rajul & Rosegrant, Mark W., 1999. "World Food in the Twenty-first Century," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 14(4), pages 1-3.
    2. Bowen, Harry P & Leamer, Edward E & Sveikauskas, Leo, 1987. "Multicountry, Multifactor Tests of the Factor Abundance Theory," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(5), pages 791-809, December.
    3. Wood, Adrian & Mayer, Jorg, 2001. "Africa's Export Structure in a Comparative Perspective," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 25(3), pages 369-394, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. A. Hassan & M. Y. Saari & T. H. Tengku Ismail, 2017. "Virtual water trade in industrial products: evidence from Malaysia," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 877-894, June.
    2. Dimaranan, Betina & Duc, Le Thuc & Martin, Will, 2005. "Potential Economic Impacts of Merchandise Trade Liberalization under Viet Nam’s Accession to the WTO," Conference papers 331403, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    3. Konstantin Kogan & Charles Tapiero, 2010. "Water supply and consumption uncertainty: a conflict-equilibrium," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 181(1), pages 199-217, December.
    4. Gholamreza Soltani, 2013. "Agricultural Water-Use Efficiency in a Global Perspective: The Case of Iran," Working Papers 778, Economic Research Forum, revised Oct 2013.
    5. Maria Berrittella & Katrin Rehdanz & Arjen Y. Hoekstra & Roberto Roson & Richard S.J. Tol, 2006. "The Economic Impact Of Restricted Water Supply: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis," Working Papers FNU-93, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, revised Jul 2006.
    6. Hussein Al-Rimmawi, 2012. "Middle East Chronic Water Problems: Solution Prospects," Energy and Environment Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 2(1), pages 1-28, June.
    7. Hamidreza Manshadi & Mohammad Niksokhan & Mojtaba Ardestani, 2015. "A Quantity-Quality Model for Inter-basin Water Transfer System Using Game Theoretic and Virtual Water Approaches," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 29(13), pages 4573-4588, October.
    8. Dik Roth & Jeroen Warner, 2008. "Virtual water: Virtuous impact? The unsteady state of virtual water," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 25(2), pages 257-270, June.
    9. Sayan Serdar, 2003. "H-O for H2O: Can the Heckscher-Ohlin Framework Explain the Role of Free Trade in Distributing Scarce Water Resources Around the Middle East?," Review of Middle East Economics and Finance, De Gruyter, vol. 1(3), pages 21-36, December.
    10. Delbourg, Esther & Dinar, Shlomi, 2020. "The globalization of virtual water flows: Explaining trade patterns of a scarce resource," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pavel Ciaian & d'Artis Kancs & Jan Pokrivcak, 2008. "Comparative Advantages, Transaction Costs and Factor Content of Agricultural Trade: Empirical Evidence from the CEE," EERI Research Paper Series EERI_RP_2008_03, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI), Brussels.
    2. Noland, Marcus, 1997. "Has Asian export performance been unique?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1-2), pages 79-101, August.
    3. Dermot J. Hayes & Frank H. Fuller, 1999. "Optimal Chinese Agricultural Trade Patterns under the Laws of Comparative Advantage," Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) Publications (archive only) 99-wp233, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    4. Chen, Cheng & Senga, Tatsuro & Sun, Chang & Zhang, Hongyong, 2023. "Uncertainty, imperfect information, and expectation formation over the firm’s life cycle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 60-77.
    5. Daron Acemoglu & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2001. "Productivity Differences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(2), pages 563-606.
    6. Archana, Srivastava, 2012. "Heckscher Ohlin Vanek Theorem: an excess supply approach," MPRA Paper 38279, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Arezki, Rabah & Fetzer, Thiemo & Pisch, Frank, 2017. "On the comparative advantage of U.S. manufacturing: Evidence from the shale gas revolution," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 34-59.
    8. Mayer, Jörg, 2004. "Export Dynamism and Market Access," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 19, pages 289-316.
    9. Dick Nuwamanya Kamuganga, 2012. "In this paper, I use a stratified Cox Proportional Hazard Model to econometrically evaluate the effects of intra-Africa regional trade cooperation and other underlying factors on Africa`s export survi," IHEID Working Papers 16-2012, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
    10. Klein, Kurt K., 2002. "Field Crop Subsector Structure And Competition Under Free Trade: Canada," Proceedings of the 7th Agricultural and Food Policy Systems Information Workshop, 2001: Structural Change as a Source of Trade Disputes Under NAFTA 16874, Farm Foundation, Agricultural and Food Policy Systems Information Workshops.
    11. Peter K. Schott, 2003. "One Size Fits All? Heckscher-Ohlin Specialization in Global Production," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(3), pages 686-708, June.
    12. Reyer Gerlagh, Nicole A. Mathys and Thomas O. Michielsen, 2015. "Energy Abundance, Trade and Specialization," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    13. Adekunle, Ademola & Osazuwa, Peter & Raghavan, Vijaya, 2016. "Socio-economic determinants of agricultural mechanisation in Africa: A research note based on cassava cultivation mechanisation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 313-319.
    14. Antonio Cruz & Carol Newman & John Rand & Finn Tarp, 2017. "Learning by Exporting: The Case of Mozambican Manufacturing," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 26(1), pages 93-118.
    15. Francis Lwesya, 2018. "Export Diversification and Poverty Reduction in Tanzania," Romanian Economic Journal, Department of International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, vol. 21(68), pages 93-110, June.
    16. Tiziano Gomiero, 2016. "Soil Degradation, Land Scarcity and Food Security: Reviewing a Complex Challenge," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-41, March.
    17. World Bank, 2007. "Ghana - Meeting the Challenge of Accelerated and Shared Growth : Country Economic Memorandum, Volume 1. Background Papers," World Bank Publications - Reports 7661, The World Bank Group.
    18. O'Rourke, Kevin, 2003. "Heckscher-Ohlin Theory and Individual Attitudes Towards Globalization," CEPR Discussion Papers 4018, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Pinstrup-Andersen, Per, 2000. "Food policy research for developing countries: emerging issues and unfinished business," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 125-141, April.
    20. Antonio Cruz & Carol Newman & John Rand & Finn Tarp, 2017. "Learning by Exporting: The Case of Mozambican Manufacturing," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE), vol. 26(1), pages 93-118.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:rmeecf:v:1:y:2003:i:1:n:5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.