Water Resources and Economics最新文献

Energy and water are essential resources for ensuring economic growth. Both sectors are closely interrelated. Electricity generation is one of the most water-intensive activities worldwide and the cooling of thermoelectric power stations represents one of the largest uses of water within the energy sector. This study provides evidence on the existence of an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) for water withdrawal at the thermoelectricity sector in Spain, one of the most arid countries in Europe, for the period 1970–2019, using the ARDL model. Our results show a direct relationship between per capita income and water withdrawal until an estimated turning point is reached. In the Spanish case, further development has led to a reduction in water needs for the following reasons: 1) the use of less water-intensive cooling systems, 2) changes in generation technology.

Using event study methodology, this paper examined the effects of water environment regulations on the stock prices of polluting Chinese firms over the past decade. It was found that there were relatively weak market responses to regulations passed by the National People's Congress, China's top legislative body, and more significant market responses to regulations implemented by less powerful administrations. In particular, the market reaction in various industries to the State Council's Water Ten Plan was instant and strong. While most water environment regulations had negative effects on heavy polluters, some recent regulations had positive wealth effects. Because water environment regulations have different effects on shareholder values in different industries, these results could assist in guiding hierarchical water environment regulation policies and portfolio diversification.

Whether rapid urbanization promote inter-regional virtual water transfers, and whether economic benefits produced by virtual water trade differ across regions, which have become the two significant issues concerned by relevant stakeholders. To this end, on the basis of investigating dynamic change of inter-regional virtual water transfers in Chinese 30 provinces from 2002 to 2015, this paper constructed the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index models to analyze the factors driving such change, particularly the impacts from the urbanization, and evaluated quantitatively regional economic benefits resulted from virtual water transfers, so as to develop relevant policies that potentially facilitate optimal allocation of water resources. Results indicated that compared to that from 2002 to 2007, the total volume of inter-regional virtual water transfers in China were smaller during 2010 and 2015. The rapid development of urbanization within China continued to improve the increase in the trend of virtual water flowing out of water-scarce regions. Moreover, regarding provincial economic benefits resulted from inter-regional virtual water trade, the ratio of income to loss for most provinces in the eastern region was greater than one, while the ratio was less than one for the rest of China. Furthermore, this paper articulated more targeted water resources management measures from the perspective of the economically benefited regions and the economically damaged regions.

Nitrogen and phosphorus emissions from urban sources degrade aquatic ecosystems. Reducing these emissions cost-effectively in an urban environment is challenging because they are non-point source pollutants and abatement strategies range from behaviour change for garden fertilizer use to large scale infrastructure investments. This paper analyses policy options for the Canning catchment in Western Australia with a dynamic and spatial hydro-economic model. Currently responsibility for N and P abatement is fragmented across government agencies. A coordinated cost-effective policy to meet N and P abatement targets in the case study catchment would cost A$0.5 billion over the next fifty years. The minimum cost is approximately doubled if the policy set excludes septic tank infill and constructed wetlands. Costs are significantly reduced if there is a city-wide policy to mandate the use of slow-release nitrogen fertilizer on public open space. We conclude that there is a significant benefit to society from adopting a coordinated approach to nitrogen and phosphorous abatement. Further, in this case study, a non-point source pollution problem can be addressed by abatement measures, such as infrastructure investment, that are directly observable.

Consumption of bottled water in the U.S. continues to grow despite the higher user price and greater environmental cost relative to municipal tap water. Convenience is surely one reason for this trend, but it is less relevant for in-home consumption of bottled water. The existing literature highlights perceptions of quality, access to information and personal experience as important factors influencing water usage in the home. In this paper we report the results of a 2018 survey of water customers of Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA), the primary municipal water utility in Northeast Florida. The survey includes detailed questions regarding self-reported household water usage, information availability, information processing, trust in institutions and demographic characteristics. In addition, in cooperation with JEA, we matched the survey results with administrative data on geographic location within the system. Using a bivariate probit regression method, we estimate the determinants of water usage in the home. The results show that concern for drinking water safety is the principal contributor of bottled water consumption. Moreover, the evidence illustrates how information from water quality reports and objective measures of water hardness translate into the drinking water choice. We also show that greater transaction costs of bottled water due to low access to retail suppliers is associated with a substitution of water filtration for bottled water.

We study urban water tariff setting and its welfare implications with a unique panel of Chinese cities in the 2000s. First, we find that peer cities' water tariff levels have a significant influence on a city's choice of tariffs. Using the peer cities' average tariffs as instrumental variables in estimating water demand functions, we obtain price elasticities around −0.41 for both residential and industrial sectors. Our estimation of cost functions reveals the supply of urban water services to be characterized by strong economies of scale and economies of scope. More than half of the sample have residential water tariffs higher than the corresponding marginal costs while the share increases to 71% for industrial sector. The deadweight loss calculated under first-best pricing suggests moderate welfare loss due to prices deviating from marginal costs.

In this paper we explore the economic value of groundwater in irrigation – both in terms of the way in which it stabilizes water supply for those facing uncertain surface water flows – as well as in the way it augments water supply to farming enterprises beyond what would be available from precipitation or surface water flows alone. These respective components of groundwater's economic value – its ‘stabilization’ and ‘augmentation’ value – have been discussed in the literature before, but we point out some important ways in which they could be diminished if sub-optimal groundwater abstraction is allowed to persist. Groundwater ‘mining’ tends to diminish the augmentation value of groundwater, while leaving the stabilization value unaffected – as long as the resource extraction only manifests itself in terms of increased pumping costs. We illustrate, however, a situation in which even the stabilization value can be attenuated – which arises when constraints to the user's ability to abstract groundwater become binding and prevent her from realizing the stabilizing value that is embodied in the immediate exploitation of the resource. We demonstrate these losses in groundwater's economic value in irrigation through simulating increasingly sub-optimal, non-cooperative and strategic groundwater pumping behavior in a way that has not been done explicitly in the literature, and use a well-studied example from California to give an empirical illustration of our points.

Drought is one of the main limiting factors affecting crop production in many areas in the world. Pressurized irrigation systems enable more efficient use of water compared to surface irrigation systems but are rarely used by small farmers due to higher initial investment and energy costs. The main question investigated in the study is if remittances affect investment in pressurized irrigation (drip or sprinkler irrigation systems). A quantitative questionnaire survey was conducted among 234 small-scale farmers in the Republic of Moldova in 2016. The main result of the binary probit regression model revealed that remittances increased the likelihood of utilization of pressurized irrigation facilities in the study region. This study further contributes to a better understanding of factors that affect farmers’ adoption of pressurized irrigation systems. This knowledge helps policy makers and development organizations shape proper measures to increase the diffusion of this technology and thus the adaptation of smallholder farmers to climate risks.

Drip irrigation is claimed to save water and fertilizers and improve land productivity. Considerable recent evidence supports the water-saving effect of drip irrigation techniques, but little attention has been given to the effect on fertilizer savings and land productivity improvement. This study examines the effects of collective and individual drip irrigation (CDI and IDI, respectively) on fertilizer use intensity and land productivity. Using a multinomial endogenous switching treatment regression and a survey dataset collected in Awati County, Xinjiang, we found that (1) on average, CDI reduces fertilizer use intensity by 10.31%, but IDI increases it by 5.57%; and (2) compared to IDI, CDI improves land productivity by more than 13.65%. Moreover, based on quantitative analyses, we found that (3) a high frequency of mutual adjustment of fertigation (an information coordination mechanism) gives CDI these advantages. The policy implications are to continue the top-down promotion of CDI technology and strengthen the information coordination on fertigation during the operation of CDI systems.

Almost 800 million people lack access to basic water supply, and almost 2000 million lack access to sanitation. Therefore, achieving universal access remains a crucial goal of the global development agenda. In order to shed light on whether international aid might help accomplish that goal, this study evaluates its impact in a sample of 121 developing countries during 1990–2015. A new approach is adopted in which aid affects access not only through provision of infrastructure (supply) but also through health education (demand). Additionally, the long-held concern about the persistence of impacts over time is addressed by estimating panel vector autoregressive models (PVAR). The results show that both supply- and demand-side interventions financed by aid can contribute to promoting access to water, but consistent long-term investments are needed.