Analysis of Difference of Water Use Efficiency in China

Abstract

Water consumption per ten thousand yuan GDP (WG) is an internationally comparative indicator of water use efficiency (WE), but it cannot further reveal the causes of the differences of WE. The shift-share analysis method is introduced, and the WG-shift-share analysis model (WG-SSM) is built combined with the regression model. According to the model, WE is decomposed and analyzed from the three levels of the country, the region and the industry from 1997 to 2011. The results show that: WG of the country, the region and the industry shows a significant downward trend, but WE is greatly different of inter-region and inter-industry; total shift of each region relative to the national average level is shrinking year by year, and inter-regional differences are mainly due to the competitive effect; the influence of the industrial mix effect is determined by the WE of the primary industry;the allocation effect least impacts on the differences of regional WE, but it can test the interaction between the competitive effect and the industrial mix effect, which can provide objective reference for drafting the water-saving policies and measures.