Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 24th Aug 2026, 01:51:11am WEST
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Daily Overview |
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Water Economics and Policy Location: B129 Session Chair: Ruslana R Palatnik, Yezreel Valley Academic College | |
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Evaluating the Effectiveness of China’s Water Tax Reform in Reducing Groundwater Abstraction 1: University of Sydney, Australia; 2: University of California Riverside, USA Groundwater is a critical natural resource, yet it is often insufficiently regulated and monitored, leading to unsustainable exploitation. In recent decades, China has seen a rapid depletion of its groundwater reserves. In 2016-2017, China implemented a water tax reform across ten provinces and administrative divisions. One of the primary goals of the reform is to reduce groundwater overdraft by raising the cost of groundwater extraction. This study evaluates the effectiveness of this water tax reform in terms of its effects on reducing groundwater extraction. The study draws on panel data from 177 sub-provincial administrative divisions ('cities') covering the years 2012 to 2021. Using a Difference-in-Differences approach combined with Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to address possible selection bias, results indicate that the water tax reform has reduced groundwater abstraction by about 30 million cubic meters or by about 8%, on average, in those cities in which the tax was implemented. These findings underscore the importance of the tax policy in addressing China’s groundwater challenges and emphasize the need for sustainable water resource governance. | |