No abstract

Interbasin water transfer has become a means by which countries around the world solve the problem of water shortage. Moreover, interbasin water transfers may also stimulate stronger controls over water pollution control in water-receiving areas. However, most existing literature fails to examine the impacts of interbasin water transfers on water consumption and pollution from the perspective of the complex entanglement between human activities and environmental change. In order to respond to this research gap, this study establishes an improved human-environment model that considers the impacts of interbasin water transfer, and uses data about China's South-North Water Transfer Project to empirically study the temporal and spatial effects of interbasin water transfers. The results show that interbasin water transfer not only fails to improve water consumption in water-receiving cities but also further restricts residents' water use due to the high water price caused by this project. Furthermore, interbasin water transfers also fail to reduce water pollution in water-receiving cities-levels of water pollution depend more on external environmental policies. These results have some implications for understanding the interbasin water transfers in authoritarian states: although interbasin water transfers do not affect water consumption and pollution, authoritarian states can maintain and consolidate their political legitimacy by gaining public trust through interbasin water transfers.

No abstract

Inter-basin water transfer (IBWT) policies alter the spatial distribution of water endowments and trigger changes in environmental regulation policies, which may unintentionally impact the research and development (R&D) activities in IBWT water-receiving areas. However, the existing studies failed to examine the relationship between IBWT policies and corporate R&D activities, and lacked the exploration of the micro-mechanism of IBWT's unintended impact on corporate R&D activities. Through the water delivery of China's South-North Water Transfer Project as a quasi-natural experiment, this study adopts a difference-in-differences approach to scrutinise the unintended impact of IBWT policies on corporate R&D activities. The findings show that IBWT policies can make the water a ‘resource blessing’ by directly improving the water endowment in water-receiving areas, thereby promoting corporate R&D activities. In addition, IBWT policies can also indirectly encourage local governments in water-receiving areas to strengthen the intensity of environmental regulations, ultimately promoting companies to improve R&D activities. Finally, the impacts of IBWT policies on corporate R&D activities in water-receiving areas are heterogeneous. Overall, this study contributes to understanding the complicated relationship between IBWT policies and corporate R&D activities, and provides insights into how IBWT policies affect corporate R&D activities.