Research On The Impact Of Environmental Regulation On The Industrial Water Resource Utilization Efficiency In China

Since the reform and opening up,China’s industrialization process has made significant achievements and became important carrier and driving engine to promote economic growth.Water resource is the foundation and important support for industrial development in modern society,but the rapid development of industry has led to a series of problems such as water shortage,water environment pollution and water ecological damage.Water resource and environment as public good in the consumption of non-exclusive,which determines the market in China’s water resources and environment allocation is bound to inefficient or even ineffective results.Therefore,it is necessary for the government to intervene in the problem of water resource and environmental pollution,to solve the market inefficiency or even failure caused by water resources and environmental problems through environmental regulation,and to reduce the total cost of society.In the comprehensive background of water scarcity,serious water pollution and high water demand,promoting the improvement of industrial water resources utilization efficiency has become an important direction for promoting high-quality industrial development and solving the water resources environmental crisis in the new era,both in terms of national water resources environmental policy guidance and ecological environmental protection needs.Based on the literature related to environmental regulation and water resource utilization efficiency,this paper has proposed the theoretical basis and influence mechanism,measured the level of environmental regulation and industrial water resource utilization efficiency by using comprehensive index method and GML index analysis method based on DEA model respectively,and finally constructed a bidirectional fixed effect model to analyze the influence of environmental regulation on industrial water resource utilization efficiency in30 provinces(autonomous regions and municipalities)in China.The results show that:(1)During 2006-2019,the level of environmental regulations in 30 provinces(autonomous regions and municipalities)has generally improved.The industrial water resource utilization efficiency at the national macro level shows a fluctuating trend,but in general,the industrial water utilization efficiency has improved.Whether in terms of geographic zones or regional categories,the trend of industrial water resource utilization efficiency is basically consistent with the national macro level.The top four provinces in terms of annual average industrial water resource utilization efficiency are Liaoning,Shaanxi,Inner Mongolia,and Beijing,and the bottom four provinces are Hebei,Henan,Shandong,and Heilongjiang.In terms of spatial distribution,China’s industrial water resource utilization efficiency has improved to different degrees.The technological progress index and pure technical efficiency index increased by 3.50% and 1.50% respectively,while the change in scale efficiency index decreased by 1.70%,indicating that the improvement of industrial water resource utilization efficiency in 30 provinces(autonomous regions and municipalities)is obviously dominated by both the change in pure technical efficiency and the change in technological progress.(2)Environmental regulation can promote the improvement of industrial water resource utilization efficiency in 30 provinces(autonomous regions and municipalities).The impact of environmental regulation on China’s industrial water resources utilization efficiency is regionally heterogeneous.From the perspective of geographic regions,the coefficients of environmental regulation in the western and central regions are significantly positive,while the coefficient of environmental regulations in the eastern region is not significant.In terms of regional categories,the coefficients of environmental regulation in low and high output value regions are significantly positive.In terms of the mechanism of technological innovation,the coefficient of the interaction term between environmental regulation and technological innovation is significantly negative in the national level,the eastern region,the central region,the western region and the low output value region,indicating that environmental regulation does not improve industrial water resources utilization efficiency through technological innovation.In terms of the impact mechanism of foreign investment,the coefficients of the interaction coefficients between environmental regulations and foreign investment are significantly negative in the national level and different regional types,indicating that environmental regulations do not improve industrial water resources utilization efficiency through foreign investment.From the perspective of industrial structure,the coefficient of the interaction coefficient between environmental regulation and industrial structure in the central region is significantly positive,indicating that environmental regulation in the central region can improve industrial water resources utilization efficiency through industrial structure.In the western region,the coefficient of the interaction coefficient between environmental regulation and industrial structure is significantly negative,indicating that environmental regulation in the western region cannot improve industrial water resources utilization efficiency through industrial structure.