IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceps/v85y2023ics0038012122002336.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inter-basin water transfer policies and water-use technical efficiency: China's South-North Water Transfer Project

Author

Listed:
  • Sheng, Jichuan
  • Qiu, Wenge

Abstract

Based on a quasi-natural experiment in China's South-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP), this study adopts a difference-in-differences approach to scrutinise the effect of inter-basin water transfer (IBWT) policies on the water-use technical efficiency (WUTE). The findings show that IBWT can improve WUTE in water-receiving cities, but this is not related to the improvement in water endowment resulting from IBWT. Conversely, improvements in water endowment further decrease WUTE. Moreover, IBWT can improve the water-saving capacity and the intensity of environmental regulations in water-receiving cities, thus contributing to the sustainable improvement of WUTE from the input and the undesirable output. Finally, the effect of IBWT policies on WUTE is heterogeneous, depending on differences in economic and demographic elements. The WUTE estimation approach in this study contributes to an improved understanding of WUTE. This study also reveals a causal relationship between IBWT and WUTE, speaking to the ongoing debate on the relationship between IBWT, WUTE and water scarcity. Furthermore, this study adds to the understanding of the complex relationship between IBWT and WUTE, and provides insights into the internal mechanisms of IBWT affecting WUTE.

Suggested Citation

  • Sheng, Jichuan & Qiu, Wenge, 2023. "Inter-basin water transfer policies and water-use technical efficiency: China's South-North Water Transfer Project," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceps:v:85:y:2023:i:c:s0038012122002336
    DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2022.101432
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038012122002336
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.seps.2022.101432?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. Bian, Yiwen & Yan, Shuai & Xu, Hao, 2014. "Efficiency evaluation for regional urban water use and wastewater decontamination systems in China: A DEA approach," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 15-23.
    2. Marianne Bertrand & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2003. "Enjoying the Quiet Life? Corporate Governance and Managerial Preferences," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(5), pages 1043-1075, October.
    3. Jon Barnett & Sarah Rogers & Michael Webber & Brian Finlayson & Mark Wang, 2015. "Sustainability: Transfer project cannot meet China's water needs," Nature, Nature, vol. 527(7578), pages 295-297, November.
    4. Zhang, Ning & Zhou, P. & Choi, Yongrok, 2013. "Energy efficiency, CO2 emission performance and technology gaps in fossil fuel electricity generation in Korea: A meta-frontier non-radial directional distance functionanalysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 653-662.
    5. Guangyao Deng & Liujuan Wang & Yanan Song, 2015. "Effect of Variation of Water-Use Efficiency on Structure of Virtual Water Trade - Analysis Based on Input–Output Model," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 29(8), pages 2947-2965, June.
    6. Dhehibi, Boubaker & Lachaal, Lassaad & Elloumi, Mohamed & Messaoud, Emna B., 2007. "Measuring irrigation water use efficiency using stochastic production frontier: An application on citrus producing farms in Tunisia," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 1(2), pages 1-15, September.
    7. Chang, Young-Tae & Zhang, Ning & Danao, Denise & Zhang, Nan, 2013. "Environmental efficiency analysis of transportation system in China: A non-radial DEA approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 277-283.
    8. G. Karagiannis & V. Tzouvelekas & A. Xepapadeas, 2003. "Measuring Irrigation Water Efficiency with a Stochastic Production Frontier," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 26(1), pages 57-72, September.
    9. Speelman, Stijn & D'Haese, Marijke & Buysse, Jeroen & D'Haese, Luc, 2008. "A measure for the efficiency of water use and its determinants, a case study of small-scale irrigation schemes in North-West Province, South Africa," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 31-39, July.
    10. Frija, Aymen & Chebil, Ali & Speelman, Stijn & Buysse, Jeroen & Van Huylenbroeck, Guido, 2009. "Water use and technical efficiencies in horticultural greenhouses in Tunisia," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(11), pages 1509-1516, November.
    11. Li, Ke & Lin, Boqiang, 2015. "Measuring green productivity growth of Chinese industrial sectors during 1998–2011," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 279-295.
    12. Pereira, Helga & Marques, Rui Cunha, 2017. "An analytical review of irrigation efficiency measured using deterministic and stochastic models," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 28-35.
    13. Gu, Alun & Teng, Fei & Lv, Zhiqiang, 2016. "Exploring the nexus between water saving and energy conservation: Insights from industry sector during the 12th Five-Year Plan period in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 28-38.
    14. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    15. Nuruzzaman, N. & Singh, Deeksha & Pattnaik, Chinmay, 2019. "Competing to be innovative: Foreign competition and imitative innovation of emerging economy firms," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 1-1.
    16. Boschini, Anne & Pettersson, Jan & Roine, Jesper, 2013. "The Resource Curse and its Potential Reversal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 19-41.
    17. Varghese, Shalet Korattukudy & Veettil, Prakashan Chellattan & Speelman, Stijn & Buysse, Jeroen & Van Huylenbroeck, Guido, 2013. "Estimating the causal effect of water scarcity on the groundwater use efficiency of rice farming in South India," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 55-64.
    18. Zhang, Qi & Yu, Zhi & Kong, Dongmin, 2019. "The real effect of legal institutions: Environmental courts and firm environmental protection expenditure," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    19. Dong-hyun Oh & Jeong-dong Lee, 2010. "A metafrontier approach for measuring Malmquist productivity index," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 47-64, February.
    20. Oh, Dong-hyun, 2010. "A metafrontier approach for measuring an environmentally sensitive productivity growth index," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 146-157, January.
    21. Matete, Mampiti & Hassan, Rashid, 2006. "Integrated ecological economics accounting approach to evaluation of inter-basin water transfers: An application to the Lesotho Highlands Water Project," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 246-259, November.
    22. Long, Kaisheng & Pijanowski, Bryan C., 2017. "Is there a relationship between water scarcity and water use efficiency in China? A national decadal assessment across spatial scales," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 502-511.
    23. Lee, Mengshan & Tansel, Berrin & Balbin, Maribel, 2011. "Influence of residential water use efficiency measures on household water demand: A four year longitudinal study," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 1-6.
    24. Yang, Zhenbing & Fan, Meiting & Shao, Shuai & Yang, Lili, 2017. "Does carbon intensity constraint policy improve industrial green production performance in China? A quasi-DID analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 271-282.
    25. Daniel Bradley & Incheol Kim & Xuan Tian, 2017. "Do Unions Affect Innovation?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(7), pages 2251-2271, July.
    26. Li, Ke & Lin, Boqiang, 2015. "Metafroniter energy efficiency with CO2 emissions and its convergence analysis for China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 230-241.
    27. Wang, H. & Zhou, P. & Zhou, D.Q., 2013. "Scenario-based energy efficiency and productivity in China: A non-radial directional distance function analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 795-803.
    28. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Wang, H., 2012. "Energy and CO2 emission performance in electricity generation: A non-radial directional distance function approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 221(3), pages 625-635.
    29. Ting Ma & Siao Sun & Guangtao Fu & Jim W. Hall & Yong Ni & Lihuan He & Jiawei Yi & Na Zhao & Yunyan Du & Tao Pei & Weiming Cheng & Ci Song & Chuanglin Fang & Chenghu Zhou, 2020. "Pollution exacerbates China’s water scarcity and its regional inequality," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    30. Yao, Xin & Zhou, Hongchen & Zhang, Aizhen & Li, Aijun, 2015. "Regional energy efficiency, carbon emission performance and technology gaps in China: A meta-frontier non-radial directional distance function analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 142-154.
    31. Pérez-Reyes, Raúl & Tovar, Beatriz, 2009. "Measuring efficiency and productivity change (PTF) in the Peruvian electricity distribution companies after reforms," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2249-2261, June.
    32. Shao, Shuai & Yang, Lili, 2014. "Natural resource dependence, human capital accumulation, and economic growth: A combined explanation for the resource curse and the resource blessing," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 632-642.
    33. Michael E. Porter & Claas van der Linde, 1995. "Toward a New Conception of the Environment-Competitiveness Relationship," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 97-118, Fall.
    34. Cheng, Zhonghua & Liu, Jun & Li, Lianshui & Gu, Xinbei, 2020. "Research on meta-frontier total-factor energy efficiency and its spatial convergence in Chinese provinces," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Sheng, Jichuan & Qiu, Wenge, 2022. "Water-use technical efficiency and income: Evidence from China's South-North Water Transfer Project," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    2. Cheng, Zhonghua & Liu, Jun & Li, Lianshui & Gu, Xinbei, 2020. "Research on meta-frontier total-factor energy efficiency and its spatial convergence in Chinese provinces," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    3. Feng, Chao & Wang, Miao, 2018. "Analysis of energy efficiency in China's transportation sector," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 565-575.
    4. Cheng, Zhonghua & Li, Lianshui & Liu, Jun & Zhang, Huiming, 2018. "Total-factor carbon emission efficiency of China's provincial industrial sector and its dynamic evolution," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 330-339.
    5. Lin, Boqiang & Xu, Mengmeng, 2018. "Regional differences on CO2 emission efficiency in metallurgical industry of China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 302-311.
    6. Cheng, Zhonghua & Yu, Xuejin & Zhang, Yi, 2023. "Is the construction of new energy demonstration cities conducive to improvements in energy efficiency?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PA).
    7. Wang, Qunwei & Chiu, Yung-Ho & Chiu, Ching-Ren, 2017. "Non-radial metafrontier approach to identify carbon emission performance and intensity," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 664-672.
    8. Zhang, Ning & Choi, Yongrok, 2013. "Total-factor carbon emission performance of fossil fuel power plants in China: A metafrontier non-radial Malmquist index analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 549-559.
    9. Xiao, Huijuan & Wang, Daoping & Qi, Yu & Shao, Shuai & Zhou, Ya & Shan, Yuli, 2021. "The governance-production nexus of eco-efficiency in Chinese resource-based cities: A two-stage network DEA approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    10. Zha, Donglan & Yang, Guanglei & Wang, Qunwei, 2019. "Investigating the driving factors of regional CO2 emissions in China using the IDA-PDA-MMI method," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    11. Yanni Yu & Yongrok Choi, 2015. "Measuring Environmental Performance Under Regional Heterogeneity in China: A Metafrontier Efficiency Analysis," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 46(3), pages 375-388, October.
    12. Ying Li & Yung-Ho Chiu & Liang Chun Lu, 2018. "Regional Energy, CO 2 , and Economic and Air Quality Index Performances in China: A Meta-Frontier Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-20, August.
    13. Zhang, Ning & Choi, Yongrok, 2013. "A comparative study of dynamic changes in CO2 emission performance of fossil fuel power plants in China and Korea," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 324-332.
    14. Zhang, Ning & Zhou, Peng & Kung, Chih-Chun, 2015. "Total-factor carbon emission performance of the Chinese transportation industry: A bootstrapped non-radial Malmquist index analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 584-593.
    15. Zhang, Ning & Wang, Bing & Chen, Zhongfei, 2016. "Carbon emissions reductions and technology gaps in the world's factory, 1990–2012," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 28-37.
    16. Liu, Guangtian & Wang, Bing & Zhang, Ning, 2016. "A coin has two sides: Which one is driving China’s green TFP growth?," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 481-498.
    17. Feng, Chao & Zhang, Hua & Huang, Jian-Bai, 2017. "The approach to realizing the potential of emissions reduction in China: An implication from data envelopment analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 859-872.
    18. Zhencheng Xing & Jigan Wang & Jie Zhang, 2017. "CO 2 Emission Performance, Mitigation Potential, and Marginal Abatement Cost of Industries Covered in China’s Nationwide Emission Trading Scheme: A Meta-Frontier Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-17, June.
    19. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Yuan, Yan & Goto, Mika, 2017. "A literature study for DEA applied to energy and environment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 104-124.
    20. Ding, Li-Li & Lei, Liang & Zhao, Xin & Calin, Adrian Cantemir, 2020. "Modelling energy and carbon emission performance: A constrained performance index measure," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).

    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:eee:soceps:v:85:y:2023:i:c:s0038012122002336. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/seps .

    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.