 Long-distance water infrastructure, rural development and urban growth: Evidence from ChinaXiaomeng Cui, Wangyang Lai and Tao Lin Journal of Urban Economics, 2025, vol. 146, issue C Abstract: Water is unevenly distributed across regions, yet the effectiveness of long-distance water transfer in addressing this issue remains understudied. This paper employs a difference-in-difference design to examine the impact of the world’s largest water transfer project on water resources, rural development, and urban growth. We find that the project enhances water supply and agricultural production in water-receiving areas, while it leads to agricultural declines in water-sourcing areas. Such diverging patterns contribute to various consequences on labor market and rural welfare, thereby generating further differential impacts on nearby urban growth. The water-receiving areas witness urban expansion and economic activities thrive in the rural-urban fringe, but in the water-sourcing areas, economic activities decline outside the core urban areas. Further analysis reveals significant heterogeneity between the two water-transfer routes, distinguished by their engineering designs. Keywords: Water resource; Water transfer; Infrastructure; Rural development; Urban growth; Structural transformation; Adaptation (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:juecon:v:146:y:2025:i:c:s0094119025000014 DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2025.103736 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Urban Economics is currently edited by S.S. Rosenthal and W.C. Strange More articles in Journal of Urban Economics from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.