Measurement and Influencing Factors of Industrial Water Resource Utilization Efficiency in Yangtze River Economic Belt

Abstract

The governance of industrial water environment in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), the demonstration zone of ecological civilization in China, has attracted a growing attention. In this paper, an evaluation index system (EIS) with undesired output is established for industrial water resource utilization efficiency (IWRUE). Next, the stochastic block model (SBM) was adopted to measure the IWRUEs of the 11 YREB provinces in 2003-2017. After that, the Tobit model was employed to examine the influencing factors of the IWRUE. The results show that the YREB provinces differed sharply in IWRUE through the sample period; the downstream provinces achieved relatively satisfactorily IWRUEs, while most provinces in the upstream and midstream performed unsatisfactorily. The downstream of the YREB realized the highest IWRUE, followed in turn by the upstream, and the midstream. The YREB is significantly promoted by economic development, ownership structure, and opening-up, and significantly suppressed by water endowment, technological progress, and government influence.