| As the increasing water scarcity poses a challenge to the sustainable development of human society,inter-basin water transfer and improvement of water-use technical efficiency are both considered as two potential solutions.However,the existing studies failed to examine the causal relationship between inter-basin water transfer and water-use technical efficiency and the internal mechanisms,and ignored the impact of undesired output and group heterogeneity on water-use technical efficiency.To respond to this research gap,this paper adopts a meta-frontier approach that considers undesired output and group heterogeneity to estimate water-use technical efficiency.Then the paper analyzes urban water rebound effect.According to the quasi-natural experiment of China’s South-North Water Transfer Project,this paper employs a difference-in-differences approach to check the impact of inter-basin water transfer on water-use technical efficiency,and analyze the potential transmission mechanism of the relationship from three perspectives: water endowment,water-saving capacity and environmental regulation intensity.This paper adds to the understanding of the complicated relationship between inter-basin water transfer and water-use technical efficiency,and provides insights into the internal mechanisms of inter-basin water transfer affecting water-use technical efficiency.Moreover,improvements in water-use technical efficiency can alleviate water scarcity,which may help alleviate poverty caused by it.Therefore,it is necessary to understand the complex relationship between water-use technical efficiency,income,and even poverty.This article takes China’s South-to-North Water Transfer project as an example,uses the dynamic spatial Durbin model to explore the spatial spillover effect of water-use technical efficiency on income.It also critically examines the role of industrial development and employment in the impact of water-use technical efficiency on income.Beyond the current understanding of the relationship between water-use technical efficiency and income,this article contributes to profoundly understanding the spatial effect and internal mechanism of this relationship.The findings demonstrate that:(1)Inter-basin water transfer can lead to the improvement of water-use technical efficiency in water-receiving cities,but this has nothing to do with the improvement of water endowments brought about by inter-basin water transfer.On the contrary,the improvement in water endowment will further reduce water-use technical efficiency.In addition,inter-basin water transfer can improve the water-saving capacity and the intensity of environmental regulations in water-receiving cities,thereby promoting the continuous improvement of water-use technical efficiency from the perspective of input and undesired output,respectively.(2)The impact of inter-basin water transfer on water-use technical efficiency in water-receiving cities is heterogeneous,depending on the differences in economic and demographic factors.That is,inter-basin water transfer can help to improve water-use technical efficiency in developed cities,but has no significant impact on water-use technical efficiency in developing cities.Inter-basin water transfer can improve water-use technical efficiency in big cities,but has no significant effect on water-use technical efficiency in small cities.(3)The findings demonstrate that increasing water-use technical efficiency can lead to an increase in income.Moreover,increasing water-use technical efficiency also improves the income of adjacent regions through spatial spillovers.That is,improvement in water-use technical efficiency not only promotes the increase of local incomes,but also increases the income of neighboring areas.(4)Increasing water-use technical efficiency promotes industrial development,thereby increasing income through the positive moderation of government expenditure.Increasing water-use technical efficiency also promotes employment and then increases income;however,increasing population size weakens water-use technical efficiency’s impact on employment.(5)From2007 to 2018,the average of the rebound effect of water use in the 40 receiving cities of China’s South-North Water Transfer Project was 8.2545%,8.2545% of the water saving effect of improved water use efficiency was offset by the increase in water demand caused by economic growth resulting from the technological progress of water resource utilization. |
