Direct or Spillover Effect: The Impact of Pure Technical and Scale Efficiencies of Water Use on Water Scarcity in China.

Min Li,Kaisheng Long

doi:10.3390/ijerph16183401

Abstract

The spatial relationship between water use efficiency and water scarcity has been widely discussed, but little attention has been paid to the impact of the pure technical and scale efficiencies of water use on water scarcity. Using input-oriented data envelopment analysis (DEA) and panel spatial Durbin models (SDM), the direct and spillover effects of different water use efficiencies on water scarcity from 2007 to 2016 in China were examined at the regional scale. The results show that the water use pure technical efficiency had significantly negative direct effects on water scarcity; however, the water use scale efficiency did not have a similar effect. The improvement in water use pure technical efficiency in one region could aggravate the water scarcity in neighboring regions through spatial spillover effects, but the same effect was not observed between the water use scale efficiency and water scarcity. Finally, we propose solutions to improve the water use efficiency to reduce the water scarcity.

Highlights

Scarcity and efficiency are two fundamental themes of economics [1]
To better understand the direct and spillover impacts of water use technical and scale efficiencies on water scarcity, we addressed the following questions: Does water use technical efficiency or scale efficiency affect water scarcity? Do any differences exist between their impacts? We conducted several spatial analyses and report the work as follows: Section 2 presents the water scarcity index, water use efficiency index, and other control variables
We estimated the impacts of water use pure technical and scale efficiencies on water scarcity through spatial Durbin models (SDM) using Stata 15.0 (StataCrop LLC, 4905 Lakeway Drive, College Station, TX 77845, USA)

Summary

Introduction

Scarcity and efficiency are two fundamental themes of economics [1]. It is generally accepted that a scarce resource should be explored based on its efficiency. Water resources are one of the scarcest resources in the world, improving water use efficiency is a crucial aspect in addressing water scarcity [2,3,4,5]. Though water use efficiency has improved, the spatial and seasonal mismatch of water resources is not yet been resolved [8]. Research has found that no significant causal mechanism exists between water use efficiency and water scarcity from a spatial perspective [9]. More attention should be paid to explore the complex efficiency–scarcity nexus of water resources

Methods

Results

Conclusion